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1 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  THE 
CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  THE 
CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


BY 

SCOTT  NEARING,  Ph.D. 

Wharton  School,  University  of  Pennsylvania 
Author  of  “ Social  Adjustment  ” 

Formerly  Secretary  Pennsylvania  Child  Labor  Committee 


NEW  YORK 

MOFFAT,  YARD  AND  COMPANY 

1913 


Copyright,  1911,  by 
SCOTT  NEARING 


All  Eights  Reserved 

Published,  February,  1911 
Second  Impression 


THE  QUINN  A BODEN  CO.  PRES9 
RAHWAY,  N.  J. 


0 *v. 


0 


FOREWORD 


So  long  as  there  are  immature  human  be- 
ings struggling  in  the  industrial  arena,  there 
will  be  a Child  Labor  Problem. 

The  existence  of  the  problem  is  scarcely 
questioned, — its  causes  and  the  proper  rem- 
edies for  it  are  alone  in  doubt. 

The  writer  acted  for  two  years  as  Secre- 
tary of  the  Pennsylvania  Child  Labor  Com- 
mittee, and  during  that  time  strove  earnestly 
for  prohibitory  legislation.  Subsequent  con- 
sideration has  led  to  a material  change  of 
attitude,  which  this  paper  is  written  to  pre- 
sent. 

The  Child  Labor  Problem  will  never  be 

satisfactorily  solved  by  excluding  children 

■ 

from  the  factory,  because  the  two  primary 
forces  which  are  sending  children  to  work, — 
family  necessity  and  an  uncongenial  school 


v 


VI 


FOREWORD 
system, — are  in  no  measure  altered  by  such 
an  exclusion. 

The  axe  must  he  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree. 
Child  Labor  must  be  eliminated  by  eliminat- 
ing the  causes  which  send  children  to  work. 

Scott  Nearing. 


University  of  Pennsylvania, 
•December,  1910. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Chapter  I 

THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

PAGE 

i.  What  is  the  Child  Labor  Problem?  . . 3 

ii.  Maturity  and  Not  Age  the  Real  Test  . 6 

iii.  Aspects  of  the  Problem 12 

iv.  The  Extent  of  Child  Labor  . . . 16 

y.  The  Child  as  a National  Asset  ...  22 

Chapter  II 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD 


i.  The  Body  and  Work 

. . . . 25 

ii.  Play 

iii.  The  Intellect  and  Work  . 

34 

iv.  Morality  and  Play 

38 

v.  Morality  and  Work  . 

. . . . 41 

Chapter  III 

THE  SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR 

i.  Child  Labor  and  Social  Ideals  ...  47 

ii.  Child  Labor  and  Family  Life  . . . 51 

iii.  Child  Labor  and  Taxes 62 

vii 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


viii 


Chapter  IV 

CHILD  LABOR— AN  INDUSTRIAL 

WASTE 

PAGE 

i. 

The  Newer  View  of  Industry 

VO 

ii. 

The  Industrial  Inefficiency  of  Child  Labor 

V4 

iii. 

The  Cost  to  Industry 

vv 

Chapter  V 

THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR 

i. 

The  Discussion  of  Causes  .... 

83 

ii. 

Industrial  Evolution 

84 

iii. 

Greed  as  a Cause  of  Child  Labor  . 

89 

iv. 

Necessity  and  Child  Labor  . ... 

97 

V. 

Ignorance  and  Indifference  as  Causes  of 

Child  Labor 

106 

vi. 

The  Why  of  Child  Labor  .... 

112 

Chapter  YI 

A PROGRAMME  FOR  CHILD  LABOR 
REFORM 


i.  The  Campaign  for  Negative  Legislation  . 126 

ii.  The  Problem  in  Brief 130 

iii.  The  Programme 144 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  THE 
CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM1 

I.  What  is  the  Child  Labor  Problem ? 

. The  child  labor  problem  is  generally  looked 
upon  as  a fourteen-year  problem.  The  divid- 
ing line  between  the  land  of  schooling  and 
the  land  of  work  has  been  set  at  fourteen, 
hence  the  child  of  thirteen  and  eleven  months 
has  been  rigidly  excluded  from  tlie  factory, 
while  to  the  child  of  fourteen  and  one  day, 
the  factory  doors  have  opened  wide.  The 
fourteen-year  limit  has  been  recognized  and 
accepted  by  the  state  legislatures,  and  every- 
where laws  exist  which  on  the  one  hand 
prohibit  the  child  under  fourteen  from  work- 
ing, and,  on  the  other  hand,  require  attend- 
ance at  school  up  to  the  age  of  fourteen. 
By  common  consent,  expressed  through 
widely  adopted  legislation,  fourteen  has  been 

1 Republished  by  permission  of  Educational  Foundations. 

3 


4 CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

made  the  open  sesame  to  the  industrial 
world. 

Practically  all  of  the  states  place  the  mini- 
mum limit  at  fourteen,  for  one  or  more  of  the 
employments  which  children  enter, — factory, 
mine,  store,  messenger  service.  In  nearly  all 
of  these  cases,  however,  the  period  from  four- 
teen to  sixteen  is  surrounded  by  certain  re- 
strictions, such  as  a prohibition  of  night  work, 
of  work  for  more  than  fifty-five  hours  a week, 
of  work  in  dangerous  trades,  and  the  like. 
The  fourteen-year  minimum  is,  however,  a 
generally  accepted  standard,  and  it  is  on  that 
standard  that  the  campaign  for  the  passage 
and  enforcement  of  legislation  is  being 
waged. 

The  age  of  fourteen  has  been  made  a 
fetish,  and  it  is  held  constantly  in  the 
public  eye. 

The  period  of  legislative  protection  is  be- 
ing extended,  in  a few  cases,  from  fourteen 
to  eighteen.  Laws  have  been  passed  in  eleven 
states  which  prohibit  employment  under 
eighteen  in  specific  industries,  at  night,  and 
for  more  than  a stated  number  of  hours  per 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


5 


week.1  The  eighteen-year  statutes,  however, 
represent  the  exception.  The  fourteen-six- 
teen-year  standard  is  the  one  generally 
adopted.  Even  the  laws  providing  eighteen 
as  a maximum  limit  of  protection,  set  four- 
teen as  the  minimum.  “ Could  the  fourteen- 
year  limit  be  enforced,  the  child  labor  prob- 
lem would  be  solved,’ 1 thinks  the  man  on  the 
street.  Should  this  attitude  become  general, 
a point  will  eventually  be  reached  at  which 
fourteen  will  be  regarded  as  the  “ right  age.” 
The  public  will  believe  implicitly  that  child 
labor  under  the  standard  age  limit  of  four- 
teen is  “ wrong  while  child  labor  over  that 
age  is  “ right.”  The  basis  for  the  popular 
impression  has  already  been- established  by 
making  compulsory  education  lawk;  and  laws 
prohibiting  child  labor,  revolve  about  four- 
teen as  planets  revolve  about  the  sun.  Al- 
ready the  age  is  generally  accepted;  a con- 
tinuation of  the  present  policy  will  lead  to 
its  being  reverenced;  and  any  attempt  to 
break  away  from  this  fetish  will  meet  with 

1 Handbook  of  Child  Labor  Legislation,  1909.  National 
Consumers’  League,  105  E.  22d  St.,  New  York  City. 


> 


6 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


as  many  obstacles  as  are  encountered  in  an 
attempt  to  persuade  savages  to  cease  from 
worshiping  their  Sun  God. 

II.  Maturity  and  not  Age  the  Real  Test 

What  is  the  purpose  in  setting  an  age 
limit  for  child  labor  and  why  was  that  limit 
set  at  fourteen! 

An  age  limit  seems  necessary  in  child  labor 
legislation,  although  it  is  extremely  unsatis- 
factory. The  real  test  of  preparedness  to 
work  is  not  age  but  maturity.  It  must  be 
perfectly  evident,  to  even  the  casual  thinker, 
that  the  years  fourteen-sixteen  have  no  rela- 
tion to  maturity,  and  therefore  have  no  ra- 
tional basis  for  their  existence.  They  co- 
incide but  roughly  with  the  period  of  puberty 
in  children,  and  with  nothing  in  the  law.  At 
fourteen  the  body  is  still  so  plastic  that  it 
may  be  injured  temporarily  or  permanently 
by  work.  Fourteen  does  not  in  any  way  co- 
incide with  maturity,  yet  the  constantly  drop- 
ping water  of  agitation  has  worn  away  the 
stone  of  indifference  and — ■“  children  under 
fourteen  should  not  work  ” — represents  pub- 


THE  CHILD  LABOE  PEOBLEM 


7 


lie  sentiment.  Should  this  attitude  persist,  a 
point  will  eventually  be  reached  where  the 
indifference  to  all  child  labor  legislation,  so 
prevalent  in  the  past,  will  have  been  replaced 
by  a stratum  of  prejudice  in  favor  of  four- 
teen, harder  to  penetrate  than  the  original  in- 
difference. 

A dozen  years  ago,  such  child  labor  laws  as 
were  in  existence,  were  based  on  a twelve- 
year  minimum.  Twenty-five  years  before 
that,  children  of  ten  might  legally  go  to  work. 
As  wealth  increased  and  the  necessity  for  the 
work  of  the  child  diminished,  the  standard  has 
been  gradually  pushed  upward,  until  in  1910 
it  has  reached  fourteen.  Is  there  any  reason 
to  believe  that  by  1930  it  should  not  in  the  nor- 
mal condition  of  social  legislation  have  risen 
to  sixteen  or  seventeen  or  even  eighteen? 

An  eighteen-  or  nineteen-year  minimum, 
with  protection  to  twenty-one,  would  be  far 
more  rational  than  the  present  fourteen-year 
minimum  with  protection  to  sixteen.  At 
eighteen  or  nineteen  the  body  is  usually 
mature,  while  twenty-one  is  the  legal  limit 
of  maturity.  If  this  standard  were  adopted, 


8 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


the  state  would  forbid  work  until  physical 
maturity,  eighteen  or  nineteen,  and  protect 
the  worker  until  legal  manhood,  twenty-one. 
The  age  of  twenty-one  is  at  best  an  arbitrary 
one,  but  its  adoption  as  the  upper  limit  of 
child  labor  legislation  would  have  the  ad- 
vantage of  making  coincident  the  age  of  legal 
majority  and  the  age  of  legislative  protec- 
tion. 

“ But,”  exclaims  the  man  on  the  street, 
“ you  couldn’t  adopt  such  a standard  now,  it 
would  throw  millions  out  of  work  into  hobo- 
ing, prostitution,  and  starvation.  And  think 
of  the  widowed  mothers,  dependent  on  their 
children  for  support.  You  couldn’t  enforce 
such  a law.  ’ ’ 

Certainly  not.  So  long  as  the  man  on  the 
street  believes  that  such  a law  cannot  be 
enforced,  it  is  unenforceable.  Legislation 
which  affects  the  real  or  imagined  interests 
of  capital  requires  a strong  public  opinion  to 
pass  and  enforce  it.  What,  then,  is  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  discussion?  Merely  this.  A 
child  labor  standard  of  eighteen-twenty-one 
does  not  appear  to  us  nearly  so  extreme  as  a 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


9 


standard  of  fourteen-sixteen  appeared  to  the 
man  on  the  street  in  the  United  States  in 
1850,  or  in  England  in  1800. 

The  whole  thought  of  the  early  nineteenth 
century  was  opposed  to  any  form  of  in- 
dustrial regulation,  and  when  it  was  pro- 
posed to  correct  unspeakable  child  labor 
abuses,  through  legislation,  a howl  of  protest 
was  raised.  After  a long  struggle,  the  first 
English  Child  Labor  Law  was  passed  in  1802. 
Although  it  related  to  apprentices  only,  reg- 
ulating their  work  up  to  the  age  of  twelve,  in 
an  inadequate  and  insufficient  manner,  it  was 
looked  upon  as  the  first  step  toward  socialism 
and  chaos. 

With  the  development  of  modern  produc- 
tive machinery,  the  nation  piles  up  year  by 
year  a greater  and  greater  mass  of  wealth  in 
the  form  of  a social  surplus.  As  this  surplus 
grows,  the  community  is  better  prepared  to 
keep  its  children  away  from  monotonous  toil 
until  they  are  so  mature  that  the  development 
of  their  bodies  and  minds  will  not  be  seriously 
impaired  by  it. 

The  existence  of  a social  surplus  makes 


10 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


possible  a long,  well-rounded  childhood.  The 
increase  of  the  social  surplus  makes  possible 
a gradual  extension  of  the  period  of  child- 
hood, and  a fuller  development  of  its  possi- 
bilities. Why  should  these  children  work? 
We  are  already  creating  enough  wealth  for 
all.  A point  in  the  development  of  the  social 
surplus  has  been  reached  which  would  amply 
justify  the  raising  of  the  child  labor  age  at 
least  one  and  perhaps  two  years.  Every  ef- 
fort should  therefore  be  made  to  prevent 
further  emphasis  on  the  fourteen-sixteen 
year  standard. 

The  age  test  is,  however,  at  best  unsatis- 
factory. As  previously  indicated,  the  child 
labor  problem  is  a problem  of  maturity  and 
not  of  age.  Stanislaus  Mattcvitcz  may  say 
in  response  to  a question,  “ Yes,  me  four- 
teen,” and  he  may  prove  his  age  by  producing 
his  passport  or  his  immigration  record,  but 
has  he  proven  his  fitness  to  work?  By  no 
means:  He  has  not  proven  that  his  body  is 
mature,  or  that  his  mind  will  not  be  atrophied 
by  five  years  of  intimate  contact  with  hides 
in  a leather  factory. 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM  11 

On  the  other  hand,  suppose  that  a com- 
petent expert  has  examined  his  bone  and 
muscle  structure,  ascertained  his  weight  and 
height,  and  tested  his  mental  development. 
These  things  are  definite  and  indisputable, 

, and  prove  what  the  11  me  fourteen  ” argu- 
ment can  never  prove;  mature  preparedness 
for  work. 

No  age  limit  can  be  fixed  which  will  apply 
fairly  or  even  adequately  in  a cosmopolitan 
country  like  the  United  States.  Some  races 
mature  earlier  than  others,  and  in  every  race, 
individuals  differ  in  their  point  of  maturity. 
Some  children  of  sixteen  are  as  well  prepared 
for  work  as  other  children  of  twenty.  The 
leal  criterion  is  not,  therefore,  c‘  How  old  are 
you!  ” but  “ Are  you  mature?  ” Unfor- 
tunately scientists  have  never  come  to  an 
agreement  as  to  an  effective  test  of  maturity. 
Weight  and  height  are  some  index;  the  hard- 
ness of  certain  bones  is  another  index;  and 
the  growth  of  hair  on  the  face  and  body  is 
still  another.  As  to  which  one,  or  which  com- 
bination of  these  indices,  should  be  accepted 
as  a rational  basis  for  judging  of  the  matu- 


12  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

rity  of  a person,  there  is  no  general  conclu- 
sion. 

Irrespective  of  the  method  of  applying  it, 
the  true  ultimate  test  of  fitness  to  work  will 
he  maturity,  and  all  immature  children  will 
be  excluded  from  the  factory,  not  because 
their  birthday  record  does  not  show  high 
enough,  but  because  either  in  mind,  in  body, 
or  in  both,  they  are  immature. 

The  standard  previously  suggested  of  an 
eighteen-year  minimum  with  protection  to 
twenty-one  would  be  prima  facie  evidence  of 
maturity,  but  it  would  be  by  no  means  final. 
The  ultimate  test  must  inevitably  be  physical 
and  mental  capacity  to  withstand  the  deaden- 
ing influence  of  monotonous  factory  toil. 

III.  Aspects  of  the  Problem 

There  is  a child  labor  problem  and  it  is 
not,  as  generally  supposed,  merely  a problem 
of  the  child.  It  is  a problem  of  many  aspects, 
phases,  and  viewpoints,  which  can  best  be  em- 
phasized by  a few  illustrations  picked  up  in 
the  world  of  working  children. 

One  bitter  morning  in  March  the  snow 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM  13 

whirled  around  the  corner  of  a silk-mill.  In 
the  lee  of  the  corner,  with  her  thin  shawl 
wrapped  about  her  head  and  shoulders,  stood 
a child  who  looked  scarce  thirteen.  Her  face 
was  weary,  though  she  had  just  hurried  from 
bed  into  her  clothes,  and,  after  gulping  down 
her  breakfast,  had  run  to  the  mill,  “ So’s  not 
to  get  docked  for  being  late.  ’ ’ But  the  night 
shift  was  slow  in  “ getting  up  its  ends.” 
Half-past  six  came,  but  the  spindles  still 
whizzed  on.  Meanwhile  the  damp  snow 
played  havoc  with  the  broken  shoes. 

“ How  old  are  you?  ” 

“ Fourteen.” 

“ Fourteen!  You  look  awfully  small  for 
fourteen.  How  long  have  you  worked  in  this 
mill?  ” 

“ Three  years  and  a half.” 

“ Well,  how  old  were  you  when  you 
started?  ” 

“ Thirteen.” 

When  this  girl  began  work  the  legal  limit 
was  thirteen;  meanwhile  the  legislature  had 
raised  it  to  fourteen;  but  the  child’s  knowl- 
edge of  mathematics  was  not  sufficient  tp 


14 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


show  her  that  thirteen  plus  three  and  one- 
half  did  not  make  fourteen. 

At  last  the  night  shift  “ came  off  ” and 
this  frail  bit  of  humanity,  who  had  worked 
three  and  a half  years  between  her  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  birthdays,  walked  stolidly  into 
the  mill  to  stand  for  eleven  hours  in  front  of 
a spinning-frame,  listening  to  the  whirring  of 
the  machinery  and  watching  the  gliding  of  the 
threads. 

That  side  of  the  picture,  the  child’s  side,  is 
the  one  most  frequently  emphasized,  but 
there  are  other  aspects  of  equal  importance. 
A boy  of  eighteen  had  been  working  for  seven 
years  in  a soft-coal  mine. 

“ Yes,  I can  write, — only  my  name,  though. 
Read!  Sure;  I read  the  paper  most  every 
day,  but  it’s  slow  work.” 

“ Didn’t  you  go  to  school!  ” 

“ To  school!  Did  I!  Well,  I guess  I did. 
It  was  in  one  door  and  out  of  the  other.  How 
is  a feller  going  to  school  if  he  starts  at  eleven 
in  the  mines!  ” 

The  school  is  also  interested  in  child  labor. 

Then  there  is  the  manufacturer’s  side  of 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


15 


the  child  labor  problem.  On  one  mill  hang 
two  signboards, — 


For  years  the  signs  have  hung  there,  until 
they  are  old  and  worn,  and  meanwhile  the 
manufacturer  has  secured  and  is  still  secur- 
ing the  merchandise  which  he  desires.  Every 
morning  the  children  come  trooping  along  the 
road  and  into  the  mill.  Many  of  them  answer 
well  to  the  description  of  the  sign.  They  are 
“ small.”  While  this  mill  is  the  exception, 
and  while  few  advertisements  for  “ Small 
girls  ” are  seen,  yet  the  low  standard  set  by 
the  ‘ ‘ small  girl  ’ ’ manufacturer  must,  in  the 
competitive  struggle,  be  accepted  by  other 
manufacturers ; hence  the  ‘ 1 small  ’ ’ ones  se- 
cure employment  everywhere. 

So,  from  many  sides,  the  child  labor  prob- 
lem is  a problem.  It  is  a problem  to  the  child 
who  works ; to  the  home  which  sends  its  chil- 
dren into  the  mills;  to  the  schools  which  fail 
to  educate  the  working  children ; to  the  manu- 


Small  Girls 
Wanted 


Small  Boys 
Wanted 


16 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


f acturer  who  wants  ‘ ‘ small  girls  and  boys ; ’ ’ 
and  to  the  society  which  demands  and  gets 
cheap  goods. 

IY.  The  Extent  of  Child  Labor 

It  is  of  little  interest  and  of  no  practical 
importance  that  the  census  of  1900  places  the 
number  of  children  between  ten  and  fifteen 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations  at  a million 
and  three-quarters,  while  certain  critics  state 
that  it  should  be  two  millions.  If  the  census 
figures  are  accepted,  seven-tenths  of  the  child 
laborers  were  boys  and  three-tenths  were 
girls.  But  these  definite  figures  are,  as  such, 
matters  of  little  importance,  because  if  there 
were  but  a hundred  'thousand,  or  even  a hun- 
dred children,  whose  lives  were  stunted  and 
misshapen  by  premature  work,  the  conditions 
would  imperatively  demand  recognition  and 
reform.  The  only  facts  worth  remembering 
in  this  connection  are  that  the  child  laborers 
are  very  numerous,  and  that  about  one-third 
of  them  are  girls. 

A discussion  of  the  extent  of  child  labor 
should  include  a distinction  between  the  work 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM  17 


of  children  on  the  farm,  in  the  home,  and  in 
the  factory,  mill,  and  mine.  Three-fifths  of 
all  of  the  child  laborers  are  engaged  in  agri- 
culture, particularly  in  cotton-picking  in  the 
Southern  States.  As  yet  no  attempt  has  been 
made  to  legislate  against  agricultural  child 
labor.  There  has  been  considerable  agita- 
tion regarding  the  child  berry-pickers  in  the 
trucking  states;  and  in  some  states,  work  in 
the  canneries  has  been  prohibited.  Agricul- 
tural labor  as  such  has  not,  however,  been 
touched,  first,  because  of  the  assumed  educa- 
tive value  of  the  work;  second,  because  the 
farmers  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  many 
if  not  most  legislatures;  and  third,  because 
domestic  service  and  agricultural  labor  are 
generally  regarded  as  of  private  concern  and 
not  subject  to  legislation. 

What  are  the  relative  merits  of  these  argu- 
ments ? 

A child  on  the  farm  with  his  father  or  in 
the  house  with  her  mother  will  in  a majority 
of  cases  receive  an  elementary  training  in- 
finitely superior  to  the  training  afforded  by 
any  school.  As  the  majority  of  children  en- 


18 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


gaged  in  farm  labor  and  domestic  service  are 
still  working  with  their  parents,  it  is  neither 
possible,  nor  is  it  immediately  desirable,  to 
legislate  regarding  them. 

Domestic  service  and  farm  labor  are,  how- 
ever, undergoing  a process  of  evolution.  It 
is  one  thing  to  work  at  odd  jobs  around  the 
farm,  under  the  direction  of  a father,  and 
quite  another  to  pick  strawberries  twelve  or 
fourteen  hours  a day  under  the  eye  of  a boss. 
One  occupation  is  educative;  the  other  is 
monotonous  and  as  physically  harmful  (save 
for  the  fresh  air)  as  any  factory  toil.  It  is 
one  thing  to  help  mother  around  the  home, 
making  beds,  dusting,  and  the  like ; and  quite 
another  to  slave,  half-fed,  in  the  kitchen  of  a 
boarding-house  under  the  hawk-eye  of  its 
mistress. 

In  a recent  address 1 Dr.  Woods  Hutchin- 
son makes  the  statement  that  some  forms  of 
farm  work  are  as  badly  in  need  of  super- 
vision as  is  the  factory  work, — a statement 

1 “ Overworked  Children.”  By  Woods  Hutchinson,  M.D. 
Proceedings  of  the  Fifth  Annual  Conference  of  the  Na- 
tional Child  Labor  Committee,  January  1,  1909,  P.  119. 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


19 


which  is  greatly  strengthened  by  a glance  at 
the  following  quotation  from  Dr.  Edward  T. 
Devine : 

44  On  Wednesday  night  of  this  week,  I happened  to  sit 
at  dinner  by  the  side  of  a gentleman  who  lives  in  Brooklyn, 
and  raises  cotton  in  the  Panhandle  of  Texas.  ...  I asked 
him  how  early  the  children  began  to  work,  and  he  said 
without  hesitation,  4 at  six  and  younger/  4 1 recall,’  he 
said,  4 one  boy  of  six  who  earned  fifty  cents  a day  the 
season  through.’  He  had  described  the  way  the  bag  is  slung 
about  the  neck  and  dragged  on  the  ground  behind  so  that 
the  picker  may  use  both  hands. 

44 1 inquired  how  big  a boy  had  to  be  before  he  was  strong 
enough  to  drag  one  of  these  bags,  and  he  said,  4 Well,  you 
see  we  made  the  bag  to  fit  the  child.’  I then  inquired 
about  the  schools.  . . . His  answer  was,  4 It  is  a pretty 
rough  country.  School  is  kept  during  the  months  where 
there  is  nothing  to  do  in  the  fields.  ...  I admit,’  said  he, 
4 that  is  not  ideal,  but  there  is  a saying  down  there  that 
ignorance  and  cotton  go  together.’ 

44  Finally,  I asked  him,  4 And  what  is  the  effect  of  cotton 
picking  throughout  the  season  on  the  health  and  strength 
and  growth  of  the  children  ? ’ A thoughtful  look  came  into 
his  face  (I  honestly  believe  he  had  never  thought  about  it 
before),  and  he  said,  4 Of  course,  it  destroys  their  vital- 
ity.’ ” 1 

Thus  far  to  a limited  extent,  but  neverthe- 
less surely,  farm  labor  and  domestic  service 
are  ceasing  to  have  their  old  significant  rela- 

1 “ The  New  View  of  the  Child.”  By  Edward  T.  Devine, 
Ph.D.  Proceedings  of  the  Fourth  Annual  Meeting,  Na- 
tional Child  Labor  Committee,  1908.  Pp.  4-5. 


20 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


tion  to  home  life.  As  they  broaden  out  into 
the  larger  spheres  of  labor-employing 
agencies,  they  must  and  will  eventually  be- 
come the  subjects  of  legislation  aimed  to 
correct  any  abuses  which  may  exist  in 
them. 

In  1900,  of  the  1,750,178  working  children 
between  ten  and  fifteen, 

60.7  $ were  in  agriculture. 

16.2  $ were  in  manufacturing  and  me- 
chanical pursuits. 

15.9$  were  in  domestic  service. 

6.9  $ were  in  trade  and  transportation. 

0.2  i were  in  professional  service. 

Thus  there  is  a wide  variation  in  the  per- 
centages of  children  engaged  in  different  oc- 
cupations. 

So,  too,  there  is  a variation  from  state  to 
state.  The  Southern  States  lead  in  the  total 
amount  of  child  labor,  but  a large  proportion 
of  their  children  are  engaged  in  cotton  pick- 
ing. On  the  other  hand,  in  the  great  manu- 
facturing states  there  is  a smaller  total  of 
working  children,  but  a larger  proportion  of 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


21 


them  are  engaged  in  manufacturing.1  With 
the  exception  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Southern 
States  have  the  greatest  totals  of  child  labor- 
ers, while  the  great  manufacturing  states 
have  the  largest  number  in  manufacturing. 
As  “ Child  Labor  ” usually  refers  to  manu- 
facturing rather  than  to  agriculture,  the  real 
relation  of  the  Northern  States  to  the  prob- 
lem is  apparent. 

The  official  authority  which  comes  into  the 
most  direct  relation  with  the  child  labor  prob- 
lem is  the  Factory  Inspection  Department. 
In  some  of  the  more  advanced  states,  the  is- 
suance of  certificates  has  been  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  school  authorities,  but  even  in 
such  states,  the  factory  departments  have  the 
largest  measure  of  responsibility  for  enforc- 
ing the  law.  The  statistics  furnished  by  the 
factory  departments  are  interesting,  if  not 
conclusive.  The  work  of  the  factory  inspect- 
ors is  usually  curtailed  by  lack  of  either  in- 
spectors or  of  office  force,  or  of  both.  The 
resulting  figures  show,  with  some  degree  of 
accuracy,  the  changes  from  year  to  year  in 

1 Census  of  Manufactures,  1900.  Part  ii,  p.  987. 


22 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


the  amount  of  child  labor,  and  they  justify 
the  statement  that  the  problem  is  one  of  seri- 
ous magnitude. 

V.  The  Child  as  a National  Asset 

Into  this  problem,  with  its  peculiar  setting 
and  its  broad  interests,  enters  the  “ Child 
Labor  Reformer,”  the  “ Fanatic,”  the  “ De- 
luded Social  Agitator,”  emphasizing  the 
human  side  of  industry  and  the  statistical 
side  of  the  child  labor  question,  and  clamor- 
ing for  legislation  and  later  for  its  enforce- 
ment. Is  he  justified  in  his  demand? 

The  human  appeal  of  the  Reformer- 
Fanatic-Agitator  is  just  and  strong.  Un- 
questionably the  children  are  abused.  Un- 
questionably they  need  protection.  As  has 
already  been  indicated,  the  statistical  side  of 
the  problem  is  insignificant.  What  matter 
whether  the  true  number  of  child  workers  be 
seventeen  hundred  thousand  or  twenty  hun- 
dred thousand?  Neither  figure  is  within  the 
bounds  of  definite  comprehension  and  both 
are  intolerable  in  their  vastness.  The  child 
labor  question  is  a question  not  of  statistics, 


THE  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


23 


but  of  children.  So  long  as  children  are 
wrongfully  at  work,  there  will  he  need  for 
child  labor  reform. 

The  reformer  is  often  extreme ; some  of  his 
statements  are  unwarrantable;  and  his  fig- 
ures are  at  times  ridiculous.  But  one  thing 
the  reformer  has  done,  and  that  one  thing  not 
only  justifies  his  existence  and  activity,  but 
makes  of  it  a boon  to  his  country, — the  re- 
former has  awakened  the  public  conscience  to 
a realization  of  the  fact  that  the  child  is  a 
national  asset. 

The  child  is  a national  asset,  an  asset  of  the 
first  magnitude.  Slowly  the  public  mind  is 
being  awakened  to  the  fact  that  whether  the 
national  ideal  be  the  building  of  battleships, 
the  painting  of  pictures,  or  the  manufactur- 
ing of  undershirts,  the  one  really  essential 
thing  to  the  attainment  of  the  ideal  is  a high 
type  of  citizenship.  A condition  precedent 
to  high  type  citizenship  is  protected  child- 
hood. 

Many  problems  have  been  discussed  in  re- 
cent years.  There  has  been  talk  of  temper- 
ance, of  labor  unions,  of  wages,  of  religion; 


24 


CHILD  LABOE  PEOBLEM 


but  no  one  has  so  direct  a bearing  on  the 
future  as  the  problem  of  child  labor.  The 
problem  itself  may  not  be  so  important,  it 
may  not  bear  on  a large  portion  of  the  pop- 
ulation, but  the  ultimate  result  of  the  agita- 
tion has  been  a widespread  interest  in  chil- 
dren. The  child  labor  problem  is  a type  of 
the  modern  social  problem,  the  agitation  of 
which  has  led  to  a real  interest  in  childhood, 
— hence,  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER  II 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD* 

I.  The  Body  and  Work 

“ Oh,  he’s  well  grown,  the  work  won’t  hurt 
him  any,”  is  an  attitude  very  commonly 
taken  by  people  who  are  interested  in  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  child  labor  system.  But  what 
does  “ well  grown  ” mean?  If  it  means 
“ partly  grown,”  the  statement  is  correct. 
Children  of  fourteen  are  rapidly  changing  in 
body  and  mind.  What  shall  be  their  environ- 
ment and  inspiration  during  this  expanding 
period?  enthusiasm,  play,  and  life,  or  grind, 
monotony,  and  degeneration. 

The  bodies  of  children  who  go  to  work  be- 
tween the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  are 
still  growing.  Some  measurements  recently 
made  of  a number  of  Chicago  children  who 
applied  for  work  certificates  show  that  ‘ ‘ The 

1 Republished  by  permission  of  Education . 

25 


26 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


boys  of  fifteen  years  receiving  permission  to 
work  averaged  nearly  a foot  taller,  and  about 
four  pounds  heavier  than  the  boys  of  four- 
teen ; and  the  girls  of  fifteen  years  averaged 
nearly  one-half  foot  taller,  and  about  fifteen 
pounds  heavier  than  the  girls  whose  ages 
averaged  fourteen  years.  ’ ’ 1 

The  statement  that  children  develop  phys- 
ically between  their  thirteenth  and  their  fif- 
teenth birthdays  seems  almost  obvious,  and 
the  figures  are  cited  only  to  prove  beyond 
cavil  the  existence  of  the  development  and 
to  show  its  extent.  It  might  be  well  to  con- 
sider carefully,  when  a boy  is  sent  into  the 
factory,  whether  the  wheels  of  progress  will 
shape  his  growing  body  into  a man  or  a ma- 
chine. If  the  body  develops  in  response  to 
the  factory  environment  it  will  be  a machine. 

In  animals,  we  respect  this  period  of 
growth.  What  farmer  is  there  who  would 
hitch  a colt  to  the  plow  and  compel  it  to 
work  ten  hours  a day?  “ Assuredly  not,” 
you  exclaim,  “ that  would  be  such  folly.” 

1 “ From  School  to  Work  in  Chicago.”  By  Anna  E. 
Nichols.  Charities , vol.  xvi,  p.  235. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  27 


And  why!  Simply  because  the  body  of  the 
colt  is  still  plastic  and  unformed;  as  yet  it  is 
not  prepared  to  meet  the  physical  strain  in- 
volved in  plowing.  The  farmer  has  learned 
this  fact  traditionally  and  perhaps  by  experi- 
ence; but  he  has  learned  it,  and  he  respects 
the  period  of  growth  because  lack  of  respect 
for  it  will  almost  inevitably  mean  money  loss. 

Why  is  this  discrimination  made  in  favor 
of  the  colt! 

The  child  of  fourteen  years  is  still  develop- 
ing, with  a body  plastic  and  unformed  like 
that  of  the  colt.  Yet  such  children  are  ex- 
pected, as  indicated  by  the  laws  of  nine-tenths 
of  the  states,  to  work  ten,  eleven,  and  in  some 
extreme  cases,  twelve  hours  a day  in  a fac- 
tory, at  tasks  which  prove  as  burdensome  as 
is  the  galling  plow  collar  to  the  colt. 

Why  such  a contrast!  Why  such  a sharp 
distinction  between  the  treatment  of  a grow- 
ing colt  and  of  a growing  child!  Is  the  child 
better  prepared  to  do  the  work!  The  figures 
just  cited  show  that  the  body  of  the  child  of 
fourteen,  like  the  body  of  the  colt,  is  develop- 
ing and  rounding  out,  and  that  it  is,  there- 


28 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


fore,  as  readily  ruined  in  one  case  as  in  an- 
other. Why  the  contrast!  It  would  seem 
that  the  money  element  is  the  chief  consid- 
eration. In  one  respect  the  colt  differs  from 
the  child, — it  possesses  cash  value.  It  re- 
quires an  outlay  of  money  to  replace  a colt; 
a ‘ ‘ wanted  ’ ’ sign  will  replace  the  child. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  one  never 

speaks  of  a “ colt’s  work  ” as  contrasted 

with  a “ horse’s  work,”  because  the  colt  is 

not  called  upon  to  work  at  all.  Its  period  of 

youth  is  left  free  for  play  and  invigorating, 

out-door  exercise.  It  has  remained  for 

human  beings  to  divide  up  the  work  of  the 

world  among  theanselves, — to  call  a part  of  it 

“ child’s  work,”  a part  of  it  “ woman’s 

work,”  and  a part  of  it  “ man’s  work.” 

* 

II.  Blaf 

The  growing  child  is  not  prepared  to  go 
into  modern,  subdivided  industry  and  take  up 
a task  that  involves  a monotonous  daily  grind, 
for  he  is  physically  and  mentally  incapable 
of  withstanding  the  pressure  of  such  labor. 
His  natural  instinct  leads  toward  play,  and 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  29 


if  he  is  prohibited  from  playing,  he  has  lost 
a part  of  his  life  which  he  can  never  replace. 

During  early  youth,  when  the  body  is  de- 
veloping and  plastic,  there  are  two  forces  con- 
stantly at  work,  the  one  calling  the  child  to 
higher  ideals  of  life  and  growth,  and  the 
other  tending  to  brutalize  him  for  the  sake  of 
the  few  dollars  which  his  unformed  hands 
will  earn.  All  of  the  future  is  conditioned  on 
that  struggle;  if  the  forces  of  the  ideal  con- 
quer, the  child  will  develop  through  normal 
channels  into  a fully  rounded  man;  if  the 
forces  of  the  dollar  win,  the  child  life  is  set 
and  hardened  into  a money-making  machine, 
grinding  for  a space  and  then  giving  place 
to  another  machine  which  has  not  yet  been 
subject  to  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  life 
struggle. 

Long  youth  means  long  life. 

Slowly  this  truth  is  penetrating  the  public 
mind.  After  years  of  experiment  and  hes- 
itating speculation,  the  nation  is  realizing 
that  the  child  who  goes  into  life  without  hav- 
ing learned  to  play,  has  taken  the  shortest 
road  to  the  almshouse  or  the  penitentiary;  if 


30 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


he  does  not  reach  his  destination,  society  is 
not  responsible,  for  it  presented  him  with  a 
first-class  passage  to  one  of  these  institutions 
when  it  robbed  him  of  his  childhood.  ^ 

Mr.  Nibecker,  Superintendent  of  the  Glen 
Mills  (Pa.)  House  of  Refuge,  was  asked, 
“ What  proportion  of  your  boys  were  school 
boys,  and  what  proportion  were  working  boys 
at  the  time  of  their  arrest?  ” His  answer 
was,  “ I can  give  no  proportion  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  school  boy  is  such  a rare  excep- 
tion with  us.  I can  say  out  of  our  experience 
here  that  the  lines  of  commitment  and  lack  of 
schooling  run  parallel.  We  have  very  few, 
if  any,  boys  who  were  not  working  boys  at  the 
time  of  their  arrest  or  just  previous  to  their 
arrest.” 1 

“ Lines  of  commitment  and  lack  of  school- 
ing run  parallel.”  This  “ lack  of  school- 
ing ” means  lack  of  the  chance  to  be  young. 
Truly,  placing  an  undeveloped  child  at  work 
in  the  world  of  modern  industry,  is  fraught 
with  grave  consequences.  With  these  boys 

1 The  Cost  of  Child  Labor:  a pamphlet  issued  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Child  Labor  Committee.  P.  22. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  31 


in  the  House  of  Eefuge  a shortening  of  the 
period  of  youth  meant  a shortening  of  the 
work  period : — child  workers  turn  easily  into 
child  criminals. 

“ Civilization  is  the  result  of  man’s  having  been  young ; 
play  has  laid  the  foundation  of  culture  by  organizing  his 
instincts  and  busying  them  in  ways  that  tell  for  the  future 
of  the  man.  Play  extends  its  influences  over  everything  in 
childhood,  and  for  the  child  everything  can  be  made  the 
subject  of  play.”  1 

If  it  be  true  that  long  youth  means  a high 
development,  and  that  any  shortening  in 
youth  means  a proportionally  shortened 
period  of  usefulness  of  the  individual,  it 
might  be  worth  while  to  cast  about  for 
some  means  to  preserve  that  youth  to  the 
necessary  extent.  Such  a means  can  be  found 
in  play; — the  chief  guardian  of  youth. 
“ The  animal  or  child  does  not  play  because 
he  is  young,  but  has  a period  of  youth 
because  he  must  play  . . . the  very  exist- 
ence of  youth  is  due  to  the  necessity  for 
play.  ’ ’ 1 

Through  expression,  the  body  of  the  grow- 

1 The  Child.  By  A.  F.  Chamberlain.  London : Scott, 
1901.  P.  443. 


32 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


ing  child  is  developed  most  surely  and  most 
completely.  The  originalities  of  a child 
“ arise  through  his  action,  struggle,  trial  of 
things  for  himself,  and  in  an  imitative 
way.  ’ ’ 1 

The  child  of  twelve  or  fourteen  who  stands 
at  a machine,  tying  threads  for  eleven  hours 
a day,  is  not  growing  through  expression,  but 
is  being  narrowed  by  an  unvarying,  monoto- 
nous impression.  Slowly  but  surely  he  takes 
the  shape  into  which  this  impression  is  forc- 
ing him,  until  he  has  become  “ A spinner  at 
$6  a week.”  As  the  machine  before  him  is  a 
machine  at  $500,  so  he  is  a ‘ £ mill-hand  at  $6.  ’ ’ 
If  the  expert  workman  is  to  have  a quick 
eye,  a firm  step,  and  a steady  hand  to  do 
the  work  of  the  world,  he  must  play  in 
youth. 

“ As  play  is  the  most  expressive  form  of 
action,  so  it  gives  a growth,  both  in  power  to 
do  and  power  to  appreciate,  that  does  not 
come  in  equal  measure  from  work.  ’ ’ 2 An  ef- 

1 Social  and  Ethical  Interpretations.  By  J.  M.  Baldwin. 
New  York:  Macmillan  Co.,  1897.  P.  99. 

2 Moral  Education.  By  E.  H.  Griggs.  New  York:  B.  W. 
Huebsch,  1904.  P.  76. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  33 


ficient,  strong,  noble  citizenship  can  be  de- 
veloped only  by  building  upon  childhood. 
Play  is  a part  of  childhood,  and  only  upon  a 
foundation  of  play  and  childhood  can  such  a 
superstructure  be  erected. 

To  grow  in  mind,  the  child  must  play.  He 
must  construct  and  evolve;  at  first  houses  of 
blocks;  then  whistles;  then  games;  then 
school  problems;  and  finally  engines,  and 
books,  and  theories,  and  truths.  The  child 
who  sits  for  eleven  hours  a day  and  guides  a 
piece  of  cloth  as  it  rushes  past  him  on  the 
machine,  neither  constructs  nor  evolves;  his 
mind  sleeps — and  too  often  iLis-ihe-sleep-  of 
intellectual  death. 

Play  is  the  first  step  in  the  constructive 
work  of  a man’s  life.  “ Education,  perhaps, 
should  really  begin  with  directing  childish 
sports  aright.  Frobel  thought  it  the  purest 
and  most  spiritual  activity  of  childhood,  the 
germinal  leaves  of  all  later  life.  Schooling 
that  lacks  recreation  favors  dullness,  for  play 
makes  the  mind  alert  and  its  joy  helps  all 
anabolic  activities.  . . . Johnson  adds  that  it 
is  doubtful  if  a great  man  ever  accomplished 


34 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


his  life  work  without  having  reached  a play 
interest  in  it.  ” 1 

At  an  early  period  in  life  the  child  is  not 
prepared  to  take  a place  in  the  great  work  of 
affairs  and  when  called  upon  to  do  so,  it  is 
overwhelmed  just  as  a day  laborer  would  be 
if  called  upon  to  take  charge  of  the  New  York 
Central  Bailroad.  The  task  would  be  one 
outside  of  the  scope  of  his  development.  So 
to  the  child,  thrust  out  early  into  the  rush  and 
clamor  of  the  market-place,  the  task  is  over- 
whelming. The  child  in  monotonous,  sub- 
divided industry  is  out  of  its  natural  environ- 
ment, and  it  gasps  for  its  native  air  of  play 
as  a fish  on  the  sand  gasps  for  water. 

III.  The  Intellect  and  Work 

“ A strong  mind  in  a strong  body  ” goes 
the  old  saying.  How  detrimental  to  the  de- 
velopment of  a strong  body  child  labor  may 
be,  has  already  been  indicated.  That  child 
labor  may  stunt  physical  development  can- 
not be  questioned, — having  wrought  havoc  in 

1 Adolescence,  By  G.  Stanley  Hall.  New  York:  Apple- 
ton,  1904.  Yol.  i,  pp.  231-232. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  35 


the  body,  how  easy  it  is  to  wreck  the  mind! 
“ The  greatest  evil  of  child  labor  outside  of 
the  physical  effects,  is  the  mental  and  moral 
loss  suffered  in  the  deprivation  of  an  edu- 
cation and  the  substitution  of  a daily  round 
of  monotonous  labor,  which  is  mere  profitless 
drudgery  so  far  as  preparation  for  adult  life 
is  concerned,  and  is  calcxilated  to  blunt  the 
undeveloped  faculties  of  the  child.  ’ ’ 1 

Play  means  growth  for  the  body  and  de- 
velopment for  the  mind.  The  children  who 
play,  grow,  and  grow  because  they  play. 
There  is  no  sadder  experience  in  the  whole 
range  of  human  life  than  to  see  a bright, 
intelligent,  wholesome  child  leave  school  and 
start  work  in  a factory.  Gradually  the  flame 
of  enthusiasm  grows  less  bright,  then  it  flick- 
ers hopelessly,  and  finally  it  goes  out.  The 
tale  is  told  in  the  lack-luster  eye,  the  harsh, 
indifferent  voice,  the  languishing  gait.  The 
working  child  at  first  has  no  time  for  play; 
then  he  forgets  to  play,  and  finally  he  has  no 
desire  to  play.  The  factory  has  done  its 

1 Labor  Problems.  By  Adams  and  Sumner.  New  York: 
Macmillan  Co.,  1905.  Pp.  64-65. 


36  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

work, — the  child’s  mind  has  changed  from  an 
impressionable,  plastic  mass,  to  a set,  change- 
less thing  for  which  education  is  no  longer 
probable  or  even  possible.  The  universal 
testimony  of  those  who  teach  in  night  school 
is  that  children  who  perform  monotonous  la- 
bor for  ten  hours  each  day  are  not  capable  of 
learning  when  night  comes.  The  nervous 
strain  and  the  reaction  from  it  are  too  great. 
The  child  under  sixteen  can  seldom  be  counted 
upon  to  do  intellectual  work  after  a ten-hour 
day  of  factory  monotony. 

Said  a boy  of  twenty-one  who  had  worked 
for  two  years  in  a woolen  mill,  starting  when 
he  was  thirteen:  “ If  I had  stayed  in  that 
mill,  I should  be  dead  now,  or,  at  any  rate, 
dead  to  the  world.  We  had  a good  boss,  but 
the  work  was  awful, — not  hard,  but  so  un- 
varying, day  after  day,  that  it  ground  out 
your  soul.” 

This  is  generally  true  of  child  labor,  but 
all  child  labor  is  not  drudgery,  particularly 
in  the  small  establishments  where  the  owner 
can  and  does  take  a personal  interest  in  his 
employees.  The  great  evil  comes  with  the 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  37 


growth  of  the  large  factories  in  which  the 
child  forms  but  one  of  the  cogs  in  the  ma- 
chinery, where  the  very  essence  of  the  work 
is  monotony.  As  industries  are  standard- 
ized, there  are  more  and  more  places  created 
where  a machine,  guided  by  a child,  or  an 
unskilled  adult,  does  the  work  formerly  per- 
formed by  skilled  men.  If  the  child  were 
learning  to  manufacture  paper  boxes,  that 
would  be,  in  itself,  an  education ; but  the  child 
who  spends  its  days  turning  in  the  edges  of 
box  covers,  neither  learns  nor  grows.  The 
task  is  standardized  and,  from  its  very  na- 
ture, hopelessly  monotonous  and  deadening. 

Child  labor  is  a process  of  mind  stunting. 
First  the  child  is  removed  from  the  possibil- 
ity of  an  education,  taken  from  the  school  and 
placed  in  the  factory  where  he  no  longer  has 
an  opportunity  to  learn;  and  then  he  is  sub- 
jected to  monotonous  toil,  for  long  hours, 
often  all  night,  in  unwholesome  places,  until 
his  body  and  mind  harden  into  the  familiar 
form  of  the  unskilled  workman. 

When  the  child  drops  from  the  ideal  of 
play  and  joy  to  the  misery  of  work  and  pain, 


38  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

lie  exchanges  a mental  life  for  a physical  one. 
Henceforth  he  lives  for  the  body, — neither 
knowing  nor  caring  for  those  necessary 
higher  things. 

IV.  Morality  and  Play 

Play  has  a moral  code  of  its  own.  Not  only 
does  the  hard  player  make  the  hard  worker, 
but  he  makes  the  good  citizen  as  well.  Boys 
seldom  cheat  once  at  marbles;  never  twice. 
Ostracism  from  the  group  is  the  penalty,  one 
which  the  average  boy  dare  not  incur.  The 
rules  of  top  spinning  are  inviolable.  It  is  de- 
cided for  all  time  who  shall  “ show  the  first 
shake  ” and  who  shall  have  the  first  shot.  No 
one  cares  to  take  a shot  out  of  turn.  Thus 
in  their  play  each  group  of  boys  forms  its 
social  organization,  and  formulates  the  rules 
by  which  it  is  to  be  governed. 

The  child  who  grows  up  as  an  “ only 
child  ’ ’ among  older  people  lacks  the  develop- 
ment that  comes  from  this  group  action  and 
group  morality  of  child  plays.  He  is  “ dif- 
ferent ' ’ from  the  other  children,  and  when  he 
goes  to  school  for  the  first  time  he  is  in  a new 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  39 


world,  which  is  wholly  apart  from  his  former 
experience.  Such  a child  has  no  conception 
of  the  group  morality  which  comes  from 
the  games  of  other  children,  and  in  con- 
sequence of  this  he  often  experiences 
difficulties  in  getting  into  the  spirit  of  the 
others. 

So,  too,  with  the  working  child  who  has, 
from  his  earliest  years,  engaged  in  labor 
which  meant  nothing  to  him, — he  lacks  the 
group  instinct.  He  does  not  know  how  to 
play  with  the  others.  It  is  obvious  that  in 
his  work  he  is  wholly  deficient  in  any  de- 
sire to  co-operate  in  the  common  labor  of  his 
group.  If  co-operation  is  desirable  and 
group  action  advantageous,  what  utter  folly 
it  is  to  foster  a system  like  child  labor,  which 
deadens  the  very  instincts  that  lead  to  ef- 
fective group  action. 

“ Playing  fair  ” means  much  to  the  child 
and  to  the  community.  It  is  the  element  that 
makes  the  desirable  citizen  and  the  desirable 
associate.  The  child  who  learns  to  play  fair 
will,  nine  times  in  ten,  work  fair,  in  the  world 
of  business.  “ Play  at  its  best  is  only  a 


40  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

school  of  ethics.  ’ ’ 1 That  is  why,  unlike  gym- 
pasties,  play  has  as  much  soul  as  body. 
“ When  a little  girl  plays  ‘ dolls  ’ or  ‘ keep- 
ing house,  ’ she  is  living  herself  into  the  deep- 
est springs  of  human  life.” 2 The  child  who 
plays  has  the  greatest  opportunity  for  that 
soul  growth  for  which  there  is  always  a de- 
mand far  above  the  supply.  Among  the 
army  of  working  children,  there  is  more  of 
cigarette  smoking,  loud  talk,  and  bad  talk 
than  there  is  of  play. 

Play  is  to  the  child  what  poetry  is  to  the 
man.  Deprive  either  of  this  essential  ele- 
ment, and  from  the  misdirected  sowing  is 
reaped  a harvest  of  misdirected  lives.  In- 
still into  a boy’s  mind  learning  which  he  sees 
and  feels  not  to  have  the  highest  worth,  and 
which  cannot  become  a part  of  his  active  life 
and  increase  it,  and  his  freshness,  spon- 
taneity, and  the  fountains  of  his  play  slowly 
run  dry.  Such  is  the  fate  of  the  average 
child  who  spends  his  play  time  feeding  with 

1 Adolescence.  By  G.  S.  Hall.  New  York:  Appleton, 
1904.  Vol.  i,  pp.  283-284. 

2 Moral  Education.  By  E.  H.  Griggs.  New  York:  B.  W. 
Huebseh,  1904.  P.  77. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  41 


hand  and  body  the  modern  industrial  mill. 
Premature  work  and  premature  decay  of 
moral  fiber  are  kindred  forces  running  hand 
in  hand  toward  the  almshouse. 

V.  Morality  and  Work 

The  child  who  gets  no  chance  to  play 
loses  the  opportunity  for  moral  development 
which  play  affords;  the  child  who  goes  to 
work  almost  inevitably  gains  a positive  code 
of  immorality  which  could  not  be  duplicated 
elsewhere. 

Entering  the  workroom  with  adults,  young 
and  old,  people  of  all  types  of  morality  and 
immorality,  the  child  ceases  to  be  a child  in 
knowledge  while  he  is  still  a child  in  ideas. 
There  is  no  home  influence  or  school  influence 
to  ward  off  the  dangers,  no  mother  or  teacher 
to  point  out  the  hidden  rocks.  The  child  is 
pilot  and  captain,  but  how  easily  influenced 
and  misguided ! 

In  a great  many  cases,  the  nervous  strain 
of  the  workroom  is  very  great.  The  children 
are  “ speeded  up  ” with  the  adults.  When 
an  outside  opportunity  offers  any  change,  any 


42 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


counter-excitement,  it  is  seized  eagerly,  no 
matter  what  its  character  may  be,  for  the 
sake  of  the  change.  Very,  very  often  it  is  of 
the  wrong  character.  “ Child  labor  is  gen- 
erally acknowledged  to  be  an  irreparable 
injury  to  the  children  and  to  society  at 
large.  Bodies  and  minds  are  stunted  and  de- 
formed; crime,  violence,  and  all  of  the  social 
evils  which  spring  from  a brutalized  pop- 
ulation are  fostered.” 1 

To  be  making  a living,  associated  with  all 
classes  of  people  at  an  early  and  immature 
age,  to  be  contributing  to  the  family  fund, 
and  hence  to  be  more  or  less  independent, — 
what  unwholesome  things  for  the  average 
child!  Independence,  before  the  proper  age 
of  independence,  often  means  ruin. 

Those  who  do  not  believe  that  factory  chil- 
dren are  knowing  far  beyond  their  years, 
should  spend  a noon  hour  with  a group  of 
factory  boys,  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of  age, 
and  listen  to  their  conversation.  It  is  usu- 
ally a thousand  times  more  foul  than  that 

1 Labor  Problems . By  Adams  and  Sumner.  New  York: 
Macmillan  Co.a  1905.  P.  20. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  43 


heard  around  the  average  saloon.  One  im- 
moral person  in  a factory  will  easily  con- 
taminate the  whole.  Immorality  is  an  infec- 
tion which  spreads  quickly  in  a crowded 
workroom. 

If  the  factory  life  is  detrimental  to  the 
morals  of  the  average  boy,  it  is  far  more  so 
to  the  average  girl.  One  who  believes  other- 
wise should  read  “ The  Long  Day,”  a story 
of  a New  York  working-girl  as  told  by  her- 
self. 

One  of  the  phases  of  the  problem  is  aptly 
described  by  Juliet  Wilbor  Tomkins.  “ I 
know  a ramshackle  old  building  in  New  York 
in  which  the  top  floor  is  used  by  a manufac- 
turer of  electrical  goods.  On  the  floor  be- 
neath is  a laundry,  separated  from  the  street 
by  three  long  flights  of  stairs,  which  are  ut- 
terly dark  except  for  the  gas  jets  insisted  on 
by  the  authorities.  At  half-past  five,  every 
afternoon,  the  men  come  trooping  down  just 
as  the  laundry  girls  are  let  out,  tired  with  the 
hardest  kind  of  work,  and  flushed  and  warm 
with  the  long  day  in  a steaming,  enervating 
atmosphere.  And  night  after  night  the  gas 


44 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


jets  are  mysteriously  put  out,  so  that  all 
flock  down  together  in  pitch  blackness.  When 
you  are  tempted  to  believe  that  the  evils  of 
child  labor  are  exaggerated,  think  what  they 
mean  to  a girl  when  she  is  too  young  to  pro- 
tect or  even  to  understand  herself.  Terrible 
things  have  been  begun  on  those  stairs,  yes, 
and  happened  there ; and  they  are  not  the  only 
dark  flights  of  stairs  in  the  New  York  fac- 
tories.” 1 

After  a thorough  study  of  conditions  in 
Pennsylvania,  Mr.  Peter  Roberts  writes: — 
‘ ‘ In  interviews  with  physicians,  each  of  them 
dwelt  upon  the  moral  and  social  evil  of  the 
factory  life.  Dr.  Gerhardt  of  Allentown  said 
that  no  vice  was  unknown  to  many  girls  of 
fifteen  years,  working  in  the  factories  of  Al- 
lentown. ...”  Dr.  Davis  of  Lancaster 
said : — ‘ ‘ The  result  of  it  all  is  that  these  girls 
fade  at  an  early  age,  and  then  they  cannot 
discharge  the  functions  of  mothers  and  wives 
as  they  should.  ’ ’ 2 

1 “ Turning  Children  Into  Dollars.”  By  Juliet  Wilbor 
Tompkins.  Success  Magazine,  January,  1905. 

2 From  an  unpublished  Report  by  Peter  Roberts  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Child  Labor  Committee. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  THE  CHILD  45 

All  factory  life  is  not  immoral,  and  im- 
morality is  not  an  essential  element  in  factory 
life,  but  under  present  conditions,  factory 
life  and  immorality  too  often  go  band  in  hand, 
and  it  behooves  society  to  look  carefully  to 
these  things  and  see  that  they  be  reduced  to 
the  veriest  minimum. 

Play  is  the  accompaniment  of  youth.  Man 
has  his  play  time : it  is  childhood.  Man  has 
his  work  time:  it  is  adult  life.  The  child 
cannot  hope  to  escape  all  work,  but  the 
greater  part  of  its  life  must  be  devoted  to 
play  if  the  functions  of  the  adult  life  of  work 
are  to  be  well  fulfilled.  The  child  who  works 
loses  the  opportunity  for  the  spontaneous  ex- 
pression of  the  new  life  that  can  come  only 
through  play.  The  child’s  body  is  forming 
at  fourteen,  and  its  growth  should  not  be 
hampered  or  marred  by  imposing  upon 
it  the  restrictions  that  come  with  factory 
life. 

As  the  body  of  the  developing  child  is  de- 
nied its  complete  development  by  work,  so  its 
mental  development  is  curtailed  and  its  moral 
sensibilities  are  often  stunted  by  work.  Child 


46  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

labor  does  not  necessarily  mean  stunting 
and  degradation,  but  the  probabilities  are 
that  child  labor  will  mean  child  deteriora- 
tion. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR 

I.  Child  Labor  and  Social  Ideals 

There  is  a child  labor  problem,  first  be- 
cause a large  number  of  children  are  at 
work,  and  second  because  the  probable  result 
of  their  work  will  be  the  stunting  of  body  or 
mind.  All  child  workers  do  not  have  stunted 
bodies.  As  one  great  man  of  the  nation, 
towering  to  his  full  six  feet  two,  exclaimed, 
“ I went  to  work  in  a factory  when  I was 
seven,  and  look  at  me.”  There  is  only  one 
answer, — thousands  of  other  children  have 
gone  to  work  at  seven  and  look  at  them.  At 
ten  they  bear  the  factory  stamp,  and  they 
carry  it  through  life. 

In  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  the  factory 
child  of  seven  does  not  become  great.  He 
disappears  among  the  “ submerged  tenth,” 
an  inefficient,  fagged-out  worker.  The  child 
worker  does  not  as  a rule  develop  into  the 
47 


48 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


skilled  artisan,  the  expert  business  man,  or 
the  picked  soldier.  What  child  labor  em- 
ployer is  there  who  would  exhibit  the  children 
in  his  factory  as  ideal  types  of  American 
children?  How  many  employers  of  child  la- 
bor give  their  own  children  the  advantages 
of  a life  of  factory  toil? 

Child  labor  is  really  harmful  to  the  child. 
Even  if  its  body  is  not  stunted,  and  its  mind 
blunted,  by  the  work  performed,  the  child 
loses  an  opportunity  for  mind  training  in  the 
schools,  which  can  never  be  duplicated  in  later 
life. 

What  then? 

The  child  is  the  embryo  citizen.  The  citi- 
zen is  the -unit  of  society,  and  the  society  of 
to-morrow,  composed  of  its  individual  citi- 
zens, will  depend  for  its  standard  upon  the 
training  received  by  the  children  of  to-day. 
If  the  men  and  women  of  to-day  decide  to  ad- 
vance civilization,  to  build  strong  and  safe 
for  the  future,  to  know  that  the  coming  gen- 
eration is  working  out  some  of  the  problems 
which  have  so  vexed  the  present  age, — in 
short,  if  the  men  and  women  of  to-day  have 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR  49 


social  ideals,  they  must  protect  the  children 
of  to-day  for  the  society  of  the  future. 

There  are  those  who  deny  that  there  is  any 
obligation  on  the  present  generation  to  pro- 
vide for  the  future.  A certain  member  of 
the  English  Parliament  is  reported  to  have 
demanded, — ‘ ‘ What  should  we  do  for  poster- 
ity? What  has  posterity  ever  done  for  us?  ” 
Generally  speaking,  however,  the  whole  mat- 
ter resolves  itself,  for  each  individual,  into 
one  question,  “ Have  you  social  ideals?  ” 

What  are  social  ideals? 

When  men  speak  of  heaven  they  voice  a so- 
cial ideal;  when  they  dream  of  prosperity 
they  anticipate  a social  ideal ; brotherhood  is 
a social  ideal,  and  so  are  education,  art,  lit- 
erature, and  every  other  great  and  good  hope 
or  prophecy  for  the  future.  No  matter  what 
the  basis,  no  matter  what  the  form  of  the 
ideal,  its  goal  is  a state  of  society  in  which 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  will  have  rights, 
privileges,  and  opportunities,  equal  to  those 
of  every  other  man,  woman,  and  child. 

Child  workers  are  * debarred  from  this 
equality.  Long  hours  of  monotonous  toil  un- 


50 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


der  unvaryingly  wearisome  conditions;  tlie 
loss  of  play  time;  the  loss  of  adequate  school- 
ing; the  lack  of  any  character-building  in- 
fluence, such  as  is  supplied  in  the  home  or 
school, — these  things  are  involved  in  child 
labor.  They  prove  for  the  child  worker  a 
handicap  which  in  the  majority  of  cases  is 
never  overcome. 

A wealthy  nation,  provided  with  an  in- 
come sufficient  to  give  to  every  citizen  a com- 
fortable living,  cannot  honestly  believe  in  a 
social  ideal  and  permit  the  existence  of  child 
labor.  Each  generation  should  hand  down  to 
the  next  generation  a higher  type  of  social 
structure  if  progress  is  to  be  insured.  A so- 
cial structure  honeycombed  and  weakened  by 
child  labor  can  scarce  be  considered  worthy 
of  transmission  to  the  future. 

So  much  may  be  said  in  general  terms  of 
the  undesirability  of  transmitting  to  the 
future  children  stunted  and  worn  by  prema- 
ture toil.  There  are  two  very  concrete  ways 
in  which  child  labor  injures  the  society  of  the 
present  and  thus  indirectly  that  of  the  future. 
In  the  first  place  it  helps  to  destroy  family 


SOCIAL  COST  OP  CHILD  LABOE  51 


life ; and  in  the  second  place,  it  helps  to  raise 
taxes. 

II.  Child  Labor  and  Family  Life 

“ The  Peril  and  Preservation  of  the 
Home  ” is  the  title  of  one  of  Jacob  Eiis’s 
books.  To  him  it  is  of  great  importance,  if 
national  integrity  is  to  be  preserved,  that  the 
home  be  maintained  at  a high  standard.  In 
this  position  he  is  vigorously  supported  by 
the  best  sentiment  of  every  Anglo-Saxon  com- 
munity. It  is,  then,  of  the  utmost  importance, 
in  dealing  with  the  cost  of  child  labor,  to 
determine  what  changes  in  the  status  of  the 
home  have  been  made  by  the  entrance  of 
children  into  industrial  competition. 

How  can  child  labor  influence  family  life? 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  the  influence 
may  be  felt.  It  may  be  either  an  influence 
exerted  by  the  child  in  the  family  group  to 
which  it  belongs  as  a child,  or  it  may  be  an  in- 
fluence exerted  by  the  child,  grown  to  adult 
years,  upon  the  family  of  which  he  or  she  is 
the  head.  Child  labor  may  influence  the  fam- 
ily by  taking  children  away  from  the  home 


52 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


for  eleven  hours  a day  and  giving  them  an  at- 
titude wholly  independent  of  home  control, 
or  it  may  stunt  them  physically  or  mentally, 
thus  making  them  incapable  of  fulfilling  the 
functions  of  fathers  and  mothers,  of  home- 
makers and  home-keepers.  In  either  case, 
child  labor  thwarts  the  purpose  of  the  home. 

In  some  localities  all  of  the  members  of 
the  family  work  in  the  mill.  Many  such  in- 
stances are  furnished  in  the  South,  where  in- 
dustry is  developing  for  the  first  time.  There 
it  is  customary  for  the  children  to  work  in  the 
mill  with  both  parents.  If  one  remains  out- 
side of  the  mill,  it  is  apt  to  be  the  father. 
Under  these  conditions  the  mother  has  no  op- 
portunity to  maintain  a family  standard.  She 
starts  out  with  the  children  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, and,  after  spending  ten  or  eleven  hours 
at  the  factory,  returns  to  the  home  to  partake 
of  the  hastily  and  probably  badly  prepared 
meal,  remains  only  long  enough  to  sleep  and 
eat,  and  then  hurries  hack  to  the  mill.  If 
the  children  have  any  leisure  time,  they  spend 
it  on  the  streets,  for  the  home  presents  no 
attractions. 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR  53 


Again  and  again  writers  emphasize  the 
premature  independence  from  family  control 
enjoyed  by  the  child  wage-earner.  Miss  Jane 
Addams  tells  of  a working-girl  who  was  be- 
ing anxiously  watched  by  the  Hull  House 
authorities.  The  girl  had  a good  home  and 
a hard-working,  conscientious  mother,  but  she 
was  gradually  being  led  into  worse  and  worse 
ways  by  the  bad  company  that  she  kept  on  the 
streets  at  night.  Finally  a protest  was  made 
to  the  girl’s  mother.  “ Why  do  you  allow 
your  daughter  to  run  the  streets  at  night? 
Don’t  you  know  what  she  is  getting  into?  ” 
they  asked  her.  The  mother  was  heart- 
broken, and  replied  that  she  feared  to  say 
anything  to  her  daughter,  because  she  con- 
tributed to  the  family  income,  and  would  leave 
home  if  crossed  in  her  wild  whims.  The 
girl’s  attitude  was  plainly  expressed  when 
she  said:  “ My  ma  can’t  say  anything  to 
me, — I pay  the  rent.” 

The  same  point  is  emphasized  by  Mr.  Emil 
G.  Hirsh,  an  employer : “ If  I dared  venture 
into  the  moral  bearings  of  this  part  of  the 
subject,  I should  insist  with  good  reason  that 


54 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


nothing  tends  toward  disrupting  and  under- 
mining the  family  so  perniciously  as  the 
premature  independence  of  its  immature 
members.  ’ ’ 1 It  is  not  customary  to  intrust 
to  a child  loaded,  dangerous  weapons,  yet  no 
weapons  could  he  more  dangerous  than  the  in- 
dependence of  home  control  which  comes  with 
helping  to  earn  the  family  living. 

In  addition  to  coming  prematurely  into  a 
state  of  independence  from  family  control, 
the  child  worker  is  surrounded  by  none  of 
the  influences  which  are  ordinarily  associated 
with  home  life.  Ten  or  eleven  hours  in  a 
factory,  with  a half  hour  to  come  and  go, 
leaves  little  of  the  day  that  is  not  taken  up 
with  eating  and  sleeping;  and  a place  in 
which  one  eats  and  sleeps  is  a lodging-house, 
not  a home. 

Not  only  is  the  child  cut  off  during  its  work- 
ing-hours from  any  uplifting  influence,  but  it 
is  often  surrounded  by  unbearable  monotony, 
bad  air,  unlovely  companions,  and  every  other 

1 “ Child  Labor  from  an  Employer’s  Point  of  View.”  By 
Emil  G.  Hirsh.  Annals  of  American  Academy , vol.  xxv, 
p.  554. 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR  55 


form  of  undesirable  influence  that  may  be  de- 
veloped where  indiscriminate  grouping  of 
men  and  women  occurs.  Working  under 
such  conditions,  and  becoming  gradually  ac- 
customed to  such  low  standard  surroundings, 
the  child  laborer  adopts  and  accepts  a low 
standard  as  a matter  of  course.  Accustomed 
to  a low  standard  of  work  as  a child,  the 
worker  fails  to  demand  a high  standard  as  a 
man.  The  standards  of  child  work  are  very 
low,  as  anyone  who  has  visited  industrial 
establishments  will  have  observed.  Gener- 
ally, the  greater  the  proportion  of  women  and 
children  in  an  establishment,  the  worse  the 
conditions  of  the  light,  the  air,  and  the  sani- 
tation. Men  rebel.  Women  and  children 
seldom  complain  except  to  one  another.  Thus 
the  child  laborer  is  generally  educated  as  a 
low  standard  laborer. 

Low  standards  are  imposed  upon  child  la- 
bor industries.  The  child,  growing  to  man- 
hood, and  accepting  these  low  standards,  im- 
poses them  upon  his  family,  and  the  gradual 
acceptance  of  such  low  standards  lowers  the 
standard  of  the  entire  community. 


56 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


In  a community  where  child  labor  is  ex- 
tensively employed,  the  entire  family  is 
forced  to  work  for  what  proves  to  be  a bare 
living.  Looking  at  the  question  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  family,  it  is  not  therefore 
economical  to  have  the  children  at  work.  Dr. 
J.  E.  McKelway,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
National  Child  Labor  Cpmmittee,  said  in  a 
recent  address: — “ Child  labor  reduces 
wages.  Only  30  per  cent,  of  the  factory 
operatives  of  England  are  able  to  support 
their  children  through  the  sixteenth  year 
without  putting  them  to  work.  And  here 
comes  in  the  economic  law  that  those 
occupations  which  admit  the  labor  of 
women  and  children  pay  the  whole  family 
what  the  man  alone  receives  in  the  occu- 
pations in  which  he  is  the  sole  bread- 
winner.” 

It  will  be  more  readily  understood  why  the 
child  fails  to  assist  the  family  materially 
when  the  rate  at  which  child  workers  are  paid 
is  borne  in  mind.  The  wage  of  the  working 
child  is  startlingly  low.  “ It  ranges  from 
$2.00  to  $5.00,  seldom  $6.00  even  in  the  more 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR  57 


agreeable  industries.  ” 1 In  cities  particularly 
this  wage  means  very  little,  because  of  the 
great  demands  made  upon  it  for  car  fare, 
lunches,  and  better  clothes.  ‘ ‘ The  wage  value 
of  the  years  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  is  hardly 
more  than  the  educational  value  . . . that 
he  [the  child]  contributes  to  the  family  more 
than  $1.50  is  extremely  doubtful.”1 

Child  workers’  wages  are  very  low  and,  as 
a rule,  add  little  to  family  income.  Not  only 
is  this  true,  but  the  child  who  goes  to  work 
at  fourteen  probably  deprives  the  family  of 
earning  capacity.  There  is  little  definite 
information  on  this  point,  but  the  Massa- 
chusetts Commission  on  Industrial  and  Tech- 
nical Education  concludes : — ‘ ‘ The  most  im- 
portant fact  in  the  consideration  of  wages 
is  that  the  child  commencing  at  sixteen  over- 
takes his  brother  beginning  at  fourteen  in 
less  than  two  years.  That  his  total  income  in 
four  years  would  equal  that  of  his  brother  for 
six  years  we  cannot  prove,  but  the  slight  data 
at  hand  so  indicates.”  1 

1 Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Industrial 
and  Technical  Education,  1906.  Pp.  88-89. 


58 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


The  probable  effects  of  child  labor  on  the 
home  of  its  parents  are,  therefore,  three : — 

1.  The  child  becomes  prematurely  inde- 

pendent and  indifferent  to  home  re- 
straint. 

2.  The  wage  of  the  father  is  lowered  by  the 

competition  of  the  child. 

3.  The  child  who  goes  to  work  at  fourteen 

is  capable  of  earning  less  in  the  ag- 
gregate than  the  child  who  goes  to 
work  at  sixteen. 

Were  these  the  sole  effects  of  child  labor 
on  the  family,  the  problem  might  well  be 
called  a serious  one,  but  the  family  life  of 
the  whole  present  generation  of  child  laborers 
is  threatened  by  the  existence  of  child  labor. 
It  is  sad  to  think  of  children  growing  to  man- 
hood and  womanhood,  incapable  of  attaining 
even  a normal  physical  or  mental  standard; 
but  it  is  far  more  terrible  to  think  that  a 
large  percentage  of  these  low  standard  men 
and  women  will  marry,  and  in  their  turn  raise 
children  to  a similar  mode  of  life. 

The  standard  of  the  community  can  be 
maintained  only  by  maintaining  a high  stand- 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOE  59 


ard  of  home  life.  The  high  standard  of  home 
life  depends  forJJs  existence  and  maintenance 
upon  the  standard  of  the  father  and  the 
mother.  The  father  must  have  the  capacity 
to  earn  for  his  children  a good  living.  He 
must  likewise  have  the  mental  development 
and  the  development  of  character  which  will 
enable  him  to  set  for  them  a high  standard  of 
example.  The  absence  of  these  qualities  in 
the  father  almost  inevitably  disrupts  the 
home. 

Judge  Lindsay  relates  a story  of  an  ex- 
ceedingly “ tough  ” kid  who  was  brought 
into  his  Juvenile  Court.  After  being  ques- 
tioned for  some  time  the  boy  admitted  that 
the  whole  trouble  lay  with  his  father,  who 
constantly  beat  and  abused  him,  until  in 
self-defense  the  boy  ran  away  from  home,  be- 
came a tramp,  and,  never  having  learned  to 
work,  he  stole  in  order  to  live.  Such  cases 
are  common  in  the  Juvenile  Court.  The  sins 
of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  the  children, 
and  unless  proper  fathers  are  provided, 
proper  children  are  an  impossibility. 

The  influence  of  the  father  upon  family  life 


60 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


is  of  the  utmost  importance,  but  it  is  insig- 
nificant as  compared  with  the  influence  of  the 
mother.  The  father  is  usually  away  from 
home,  but  the  mother  spends  the  greater  por- 
tion of  her  time  there.  It  is  with  her  that  the 
children  come  into  most  intimate  contact,  and 
hers  is  by  far  the  most  important  influence 
in  the  home. 

The  women  who  enter  a factory  at  the  age 
of  twelve  and  spend  the  years  from  twelve 
to  twenty  inside  of  four  dark,  dirty  walls 
amid  whirring  machines,  in  constant  associ- 
ation with  bad  men  and  women,  have  not,  in 
the  first  place,  the  physical  stamina  neces- 
sary to  bring  strong  children  into  the  world. 
As  Dr.  Davis  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  a great 
women-employing  center,  puts  it, — “ These 
factory  girls  fade  at  an  early  age,  and  then 
they  cannot  discharge  the  functions  of 
mothers  and  wives  as  they  should.” 

In  the  second  place  a girl  who  has  spent 
her  life  in  the  factory  is  usually  untrained 
in  the  maintenance  of  a home.  There  is  a 
wide  difference  between  an  intense,  high- 
strung,  exciting  factory  life,  and  the  quiet 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR  61 

routine  of  a properly  conducted  home,  and 
the  change  from  one  to  the  other  is  difficult  to 
make.  There  are  a thousand  things  which 
girls  who  grow  up  at  home  learn,  hut  which 
never  become  a part  of  the  education  of  a fac- 
tory child.  There  are  arts  of  cooking  and  of 
cleaning,  arts  of  care-taking  and  home-making 
that  come  only  from  the  actual  contact  with 
these  problems  in  the  home.  This  contact  the 
factory  child  has  never  had.  An  eleven-hour 
day  in  the  factory  precludes  the  possibility 
of  any  housework  except  the  merest  drudgery. 

This  lack  of  home-making  knowledge  has  its 
inevitable  consequences.  There  is  a very  def- 
inite relation  between  tough  meat  and  under- 
done potatoes  for  supper,  and  a long  session 
in  the  saloon  for  the  husband  after  supper. 
A washerwoman  who  did  much  of  the  drying 
of  her  clothes  in  the  two  small  tenement 
rooms  in  which  the  family  sat,  ate,  and  slept, 
was  offered  an  opportunity  to  do  the  work  at 
stationary  washtubs  in  a Neighborhood 
House  close  by.  Her  ground  for  refusal  was 
that  she  had  always  done  her  washing  in  her 
own  room,  and  that  it  was  too  much  trouble 


62 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


to  go  outside.  What  refuge  have  the  father 
and  the  children  in  such  a family,  save  the 
open  streets,  the  saloons,  the  public  squares? 
Bad  companions  and  unwholesome  life  are  in- 
finitely preferable  to  the  dank,  nauseating 
smell  of  clothes,  forever  washing  and  drying, 
and,  as  it  seems,  never  washed  or  dried. 

The  solidarity  of  family  life  can  be  main- 
tained only  by  trained  mothers  and  capable 
fathers,  mothers  who  will  make  inhabitable 
homes  to  the  extent  of  their  means,  and 
fathers  who  will  use  every  effort  to  provide 
the  means  with  which  to  make  the  home  in- 
habitable. Factory  work  for  children  goes 
far  to  thwart  both  ideals,  by  making  of  the 
boy  an  unskilled  worker,  incapable  of  earning 
large  means,  and  by  making  of  the  girl  a wife 
and  mother,  incapable  of  doing  her  duty  by 
her  husband,  her  home,  or  her  children. 

III.  Child  Labor  and  Taxes 

There  is  a second  social  aspect  of  the  prob- 
lem, of  almost  equal  interest  with  the  effect 
of  child  labor  on  the  family.  What  effect  has 
child  labor  on  taxes?  A definite,  accurate  an- 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR  63 


swer  to  the  proposition  is  impossible. 
Nothing  can  be  done  except  to  indicate  some 
evident  tendencies,  and  point  to  some  appar- 
ent conclusions.  Taking  all  of  the  facts  into 
consideration,  it  would  appear  that  child  la- 
bor results  not  only  in  disintegrating  family 
life,  but  in  increasing  taxes  as  well. 

When  the  Superintendent  of  a Boys’  House 
of  Refuge  was  asked  what  proportion  of  the 
children  who  came  to  him  were  working  chil- 
dren and  what  proportion  were  school  chil- 
dren, he  said  that  he  could  give  no  propor- 
tion, because  the  school  child  was  a rare 
exception  in  his  institution. 

The  community  which  allows  its  children 
to  start  work  early  in  life,  and  in  pursuit  of 
their  badly  directed  ideas,  to  learn  things  that 
result  in  their  being  committed  to  the  House 
of  Refuge,  pays  the  penalty  for  its  folly  in 
the  increasing  taxes  that  go  to  support  penal 
institutions. 

The  point  is  well  illustrated  by  a study 
made  recently  in  Chicago,  of  the  first  hundred 
delinquent  boys  who  appeared  before  the  Chi- 
cago Juvenile  Court  in  1909.  Of  this  group 


64 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


of  one  hundred  boys,  sixty-five  were  past 
fourteen,  one  had  finished  the  eighth  grade, 
eleven  had  finished  the  sixth  grade,  ninety 
were  born  in  the  United  States.  And,  most 
important  of  all,  for  this  study,  “ only  thir- 
teen of  the  one  hundred  claimed  to  have  never 
worked.  Of  this  thirteen  six  were  past  four- 
teen years  of  age.  Not  a single  boy  had  ever 
been  apprenticed  in  any  trade.”  “ At  this 
present  rate,  8 per  cent,  of  all  the  children 
and  12  per  cent,  of  all  the  boys  born  in  Chi- 
cago, who  live  to  be  ten  years  of  age,  will 
be  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court  as  delin- 
quents before  they  are  sixteen.  The  City 
of  Chicago  pays  for  its  delinquent  children 
committed  to  reformatories  $168,600  per 
year.”  1 

The  child,  particularly  the  boy,  who  is 
thrown  out  upon  the  world  too  early  in  life, 
and  made  to  face  its  responsibilities,  is  over- 
whelmed with  its  bigness  and  wearied  by  its 
never  changing  monotony.  He  seeks  relief 

1 “ Child  Labor  and  the  Juvenile  Court.”  By  James  M. 
Britton,  M.D.  Proceedings  of  the  Fifth  Conference,  Na- 
tional Child  Labor  Committee,  1909.  Pp,  112-114. 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR  65 


for  his  strained  nervous  system  in  some  kind 
of  activity  which  leads  ultimately  to  the  door 
of  the  police  court.  The  freedom  of  the  fac- 
tory, and  of  wage-earning,  do  more  than 
aught  else  to  break  home  restraints.  The 
working  boy  is  usually  the  street  boy,  be- 
cause the  street  offers  more  opportunity  for 
relaxation  after  the  long  strain  of  a day’s 
work,  presenting  a pleasing  contrast  with  the 
dull  sameness  of  home. 

A vast  proportion  of  criminals  begin  their 
criminal  career  as  boys  by  some  petty  offense, 
small  in  itself,  and  often  committed  through 
ignorance,  and  not  through  intent  to  do 
wrong.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how 
much  of  this  ignorance  is  the  result  of  early 
wage-earning,  with  its  lack  of  opportunity  for 
real  training. 

How  much  of  the  cost  of  the  criminal  sys- 
tem may  be  traced  in  its  origin  to  the  prema- 
ture employment  of  children,  is  uncertain. 
One  point,  however,  is  evident.  If  it  be  true 
that  “ lines  of  commitment  and  lack  of 
schooling  run  parallel  ’ ’ at  least  a proportion 
of  the  tax  cost  of  the  criminal  system  may  be 


66 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


laid  to  child  labor,  which  inevitably  means 
lack  of  schooling  for  the  child  laborer. 

In  addition  to  facing  the  problem  of  sup- 
porting, in  its  houses  of  refuge  and  its  peni- 
tentiaries, boys  and  men  whose  criminal 
careers  have  been  started  by  a too  early  ex- 
posure to  the  trials  and  temptations  of  mod- 
ern industrial  life,  the  community  must  face 
the  problem  of  maintaining  in  its  hospitals 
and  almshouses  the  crippled  and  degenerate 
and  inefficient,  who  have  been  thrown  out  of 
the  great  industrial  tread-mills  and  left 
ruined  for  life, — broken,  incompetent  work- 
ers. The  studies  which  have  been  made  in- 
dicate that  the  proportion  of  industrial  acci- 
dents among  working  children  is  far  higher 
than  that  among  adult  workers.  Children 
are  essentially  ignorant  and  careless.  They 
do  not  realize  the  dangers  connected  with 
their  occupations,  and  constant  injuries  and 
accidents  are  the  result. 

The  average  child  who  enters  industry  at 
an  early  age  closes  behind  him  the  door  of 
opportunity  to  a higher  and  better  industrial 
plane.  The  child  laborer  becomes  a less  ef- 


SOCIAL  COST  OF  CHILD  LABOR  67 


fective  producer  than  the  child  who  had  addi- 
tional schooling  advantages.  As  Jane  Ad- 
dams  puts  it: — “ The  pauperization  of  soci- 
ety itself,  however,  is  the  most  serious 
charge.  ’ ’ To  paraphrase  an  illustration  used 
by  the  Webbs,  the  factory  says  of  the  com- 
munity, “ You  have  educated  the  children 
in  the  public  schools;  now  please  give  them 
to  me,  I will  use  them  until  they  begin  to 
demand  an  adult  wage,  and  then  I will  turn 
them  out  again.  If  I have  broken  them  down 
the  community  will  take  care  of  them  in  the 
poorhouse  and  the  hospitals.” 

What  connection  is  there  between  child 
labor  and  pauperism?  In  his  book  on 
American  Charities,  Dr.  A.  J.  Warner 
takes  statistics  from  various  cities,  and  com- 
piles, under  several  heads,  the  causes  of 
pauperism.  The  first  cause  in  importance  is 
non-employment.  In  almost  every  case,  the 
men  who  first  lose  their  places  and  are  most 
quickly  thrown  out  in  an  industrial  crisis, 
and  who  are  the  last  to  be  taken  on  in  times 
of  industrial  prosperity,  are  the  men  who  are 
inefficient  because  they  have  neither  sufficient 


68  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

training  nor  sufficient  bodily  vigor  to  sustain 
long  periods  of  activity. 

How  far  is  child  labor  responsible  for  this 
class  of  paupers!  “ We  have  a municipal 
lodging  house  in  Chicago  filled  with  tramps. 
...  It  is  surprising  to  find  how  many  of  them 
are  tired  to  death  of  monotonous  labor,  and 
begin  to  tramp  in  order  to  get  away  from  it, 
as  a business  man  goes  to  the  woods  because 
he  is  worn  out  with  the  stress  of  business  life. 
This  desire  to  get  away  from  work  seems  to 
be  connected  with  the  fact  that  the  men  have 
started  to  work  very  early,  before  they  had 
physique  to  stand  up  to  it,  or  the  mental 
vigor  with  which  to  overcome  its  difficul- 
ties, or  the  moral  stamina  which  makes  a 
man  stick  to  his  work  whether  he  likes  it 
or  not.”  1 

Laying  aside  for  the  moment  any  humane 
considerations,  both  crime  and  pauperism 
are  expensive.  A ready  method  of  doing  away 
with  one  element  in  these  expensive,  inhuman 
maladjustments  is  to  do  away  with  child  la- 

1 “ Child  Labor  and  Pauperism.’5  By  Jane  Addams. 
Charities,  vol.  xi,  p.  302. 


SOCIAL  COST  OP  CHILD  LABOR  69 


bor,  which  so  readily  leads  to  crime,  pauper- 
ism, or  both. 

In  the  social  fiber,  in  family  life,  in  taxes, 
child  labor  is  costly.  It  breaks  down  the  in- 
dividual, it  destroys  the  family  life  of  the 
present,  and  threatens  the  family  life  of  the 
future,  and  last,  probably  least  in  importance, 
it  adds  to  the  number  of  incompetent  that  the 
community  must  support.  From  any  social 
viewpoint,  child  labor  is  costly. 


CHAPTER  IV 


CHILD  LABOR— AN  INDUSTRIAL  WASTE 

I.  The  Newer  View  of  Industry 

The  Treasurer  of  the  Alabama  City  Cotton 
Mill,  Alabama,  wrote  to  bis  agent: — “ Every 
time  I visit  this  mill,  I am  impressed  with  the 
fact  that  it  is  a great  mistake  to  employ  small 
help  in  the  spinning-room.  Not  only  is  it 
wrong  from  a humanitarian  standpoint,  but  it 
entails  an  absolute  loss  to  the  mill.”1  In  a 
letter  to  the  Boston  Transcript  the  same  gen- 
tleman writes : — ‘ ‘ I have  never  been  South 
without  protesting  to  the  agent  . . . against 
allowing  children  under  twelve  years  of  age 
to  come  into  the  mill,  as  I did  not  consider 
them  intelligent  enough  to  do  good  work.  ’ ’ 1 
There  can  be  little  question  that  child  labor 
is  a social  waste.  It  hurts  the  children’s 

1 Child  Labor  in  Alabama:  a pamphlet  published  by  the 
Alabama  Child  Labor  Committee. 


70 


CHILD  LABOR— INDUSTRIAL  WASTE  71 


bodies,  deprives  them  of  needed  education, 
and  often  places  them  in  questionable  moral 
surroundings.  Child  labor  is  a social  waste, 
and  as  such  should  be  summarily  dealt  with ; 
but  what  of  its  relations  to  industry?  Soci- 
ety looks  upon  the  destruction  of  its  working 
material  with  comparative  indifference,  be- 
cause society  has  not  a “ business  view- 
point; ” but  what  must  be  the  viewpoint  of 
industry?  Would  it  not  be  a discovery 
fraught  with  the  most  far-reaching  sig- 
nificance for  American  industry  if  the  state- 
ment made  by  the  Treasurer  of  the  Alabama 
City  Cotton  Mill  proved  to  be  correct?  What 
a waste  would  be  involved  in  the  employment 
of  thousands  of  “ small  help  ” in  the  vari- 
ous branches  of  American  industry ! 

The  members  of  any  social  group  are,  un- 
der present  conditions,  liable  to  emphasize 
the  individual  problems  much  more  than  the 
social  ones.  “ Let  us  abolish  child  labor,” 
cries  the  social  reformer.  “ Wait,”  warns 
the  manufacturer,  ‘ ‘ you  will  drive  me  out  of 
business.” 

Is  that  true? 


72 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


In  western  Pennsylvania,  northern  West 
Virginia,  and  eastern  Ohio,  there  is  a region 
of  natural  gas  deposits  around  which  a glass 
bottle  industry  developed.  The  glass  bottle 
industry  formerly  employed  a large  number 
of  boys,  some  of  whom  assisted  the  blower, 
while  others  carried  the  bottles  when  blown  to 
the  annealing-oven,  where  they  were  cooled. 
As  this  geographically  centered  industry  com- 
prised three  states,  any  attempt  at  legislation 
in  one  state  was  met  by  a prompt  statement, 
“ If  you  raise  the  age  in  Pennsylvania,  we 
move  our  industry  to  West  Virginia.  We’ve 
got  to  have  the  boys  in  our  business.  If  you 
legislate  ’em  out  of  it,  we  move.”  This 
threat,  combined  with  consistent  lobbying,  for 
years  prevented  the  passage  of  child  labor 
legislation  in  these  three  states. 

In  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  the  minimum  age 
for  night  work  in  glass  houses  was  fourteen, 
and  in  West  Virginia,  twelve,  while  in  Indi- 
ana  and  Illinois,  the  two  states  directly  west, 
the  minimum  limit  for  night  work  was  six- 
teen. Slowly  the  supply  of  natural  gas  was 
exhausted  in  the  Pennsylvania-West  Virginia 


CHILD  LABOR— INDUSTRIAL  WASTE  73 


field,  and  new  fields  were  discovered  in  In- 
diana and  Illinois,  when,  marvelous  to  relate, 
the  glass  industry  began  to  move  from  a 
state  with  fourteen-year  minimum  to  a state 
with  a sixteen-year  minimum.  And  the  boys  ! 
the  “ problem  ” over  which  the  reformers 
and  glass  men  had  contended  for  years!  They 
were  replaced  by  adults  or  by  machinery. 
The  real  crux  of  the  situation  was  not  the 
boys  at  all,  but  the  natural  gas  supply — the 
cheap  fuel. 

This  is  a single  instance  of  the  effect  of 
eliminating  child  labor  from  an  industry.  Is 
it  an  isolated  case,  or  a general  rule!  Has 
the  cotton  industry  developed  in  the  South 
because  of  the  presence  of  quantities  of  chil- 
dren, ready  to  work  in  the  mills,  or  because 
of  the  proximity  to  the  fields  where  the  cotton 
is  produced,  to  a cheap  fuel  supply,  and  to  an 
abundance  of  water-power!  If  children  un- 
der sixteen  were  prohibited  from  working  in 
the  Southern  cotton  mills,  would  the  manu- 
facturers move!  Would  it  not  be  a discov- 
ery pregnant  with  the  most  far-reaching  im- 
portance for  the  future,  if  it  were  found  that 


74 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


child  labor  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  industry, 
and  that,  after  all,  it  entails  just  as  great 
an  industrial  waste  as  it  does  a social 
one! 

Child  labor  is  wasteful  to  industry.  The 
statement  of  the  Treasurer  of  the  Alabama 
City  Mill  is  not  an  isolated  opinion.  Manu- 
facturers everywhere  are  being  forced  to  the 
new  viewpoint.  The  philosophy  is  well 
summed  up  by  a silk  manufacturer: — “ So 
far  as  the  economy  of  production  goes, 
as  a manufacturer  I think  we  can  do  without 
the  labor  of  children.”1  Child  labor  is  un- 
doubtedly cheap  labor.  But  is  not  the  prod- 
uct cheaper  than  the  labor  involved  in  its 
creation? 

II.  The  Industrial  Inefficiency  of  Child  Labor 

Leaving  aside  for  a moment  the  very  per- 
tinent question  as  to  whether  the  extensive 
employment  of  children  will  materially  af- 
fect their  efficiency  as  adult  workmen,  it  may 

1<e  Restriction  on  Child  Labor  in  Textile  Industries.”  By 
Howell  Cheyney,  Cheyney  Silk  Mills,  So.  Manchester,  Conn. 
Proceedings  Fifth  Conference  on  Child  Labor,  National 
Child  Labor  Committee,  1909.  P.  91. 


CHILD  LABOR— INDUSTRIAL  WASTE  75 


be  stated  as  a general  truth  that  the  employer 
of  to-day  cannot  afford  to  employ  young  chil- 
dren. Says  the  manager  of  a jute  mill: — 
“ We  used  to  employ  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  kids,  but  we  have  cut  the  number  down 
to  eighty-seven  this  year,  and  we  expect  to  go 
on  reducing  it.  Our  mill  is  turning  out  more 
stuff  than  it  used  to,  and  we  find  it  cheaper 
to  work  with  older  help.  ’ ’ 

In  all  industries,  and  in  all  sections, 
thoughtful  employers  who  have  considered 
the  matter  have  reached  the  same  conclusion. 
They  have  decided  that  it  is  in  the  long  run 
cheaper  to  invent  machinery  or  to  employ 
adult  help  and  thus  replace  the  children.  The 
“ kids  ” are  “ quick  ” and  “ cheap,”  but 
they  are  unreliable,  wasteful,  and  expensive 
as  accident  causers. 

Child  labor  is  cheap  labor,  and  the  product 
of  this  cheap  labor  is  a cheap  product.  Miss 
Jane  Addams  tells  of  seeing  a child  of  five 
in  a Southern  cotton  mill  helping  to  make 
sheeting  for  the  Chinese  Army.  The  product 
was  poor  and  very  cheap,  but  so  was  the 
market  for  which  the  product  was  destined. 


76 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


“ In  the  Georgia  Legislature  last  summer  a noted  cotton 
manufacturer,  a member  of  the  Georgia  Senate,  in  an  elo- 
quent plea  against  the  child  labor  system,  challenged  his 
associates  in  that  business  who  were  also  members  of  the 
Senate,  to  disprove  his  statement  that  the  same  quality  of 
cotton  goods  manufactured  in  the  South  was  sold  at  a price 
from  two  to  four  cents  a pound  lower  than  these  goods 
manufactured  in  the  North.  ...  A Georgia  cotton  mill 
imported  skilled  laborers  for  the  manufacture  of  fine  goods. 
The  goods  were  sold  at  Philadelphia  and  New  England 
prices.  Once  some  tags  containing  the  name  and  location 
of  this  mill  were  slipped  into  the  bales  of  finished  cloth 
by  the  workmen.  The  mill  management  immediately  re- 
ceived a letter  from  the  commission  merchant  urging  that 
this  should  never  be  done  again;  that  he  had  concealed  the 
fact  that  this  particular  mill  was  located  in  the  South,  and 
thereby  had  been  able  to  get  northern  prices  for  the  goods.”  1 

Thus  the  prevalence  of  child  labor  in  an  in- 
dustry at  once  throws  discredit  on  its  product. 
“ Industries  so  recruited  cannot  long  com- 
pete with  similar  industries  recruited  from 
men  who  have  been  technically  trained.  In 
the  long  run  that  industry,  wherever  in  the 
world  it  is  located,  which  combines  with  gen- 
eral intelligence  the  broadest  technical  knowl- 
edge and  the  highest  technical  training,  will 
command  the  markets  of  the  world.  ’ ’ 2 

1 “ Child  Labor  in  the  Southern  Cotton  Mills.”  By  A.  J. 
McKelway.  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science , vol.  xxvii,  p.  266. 

2 Conclusion  of  the  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Indus- 
trial and  Technical  Education,  1906.  P.  19. 


CHILD  LABOR— INDUSTRIAL  WASTE  77 


It  is  evident,  then,  that  even  in  an  industry 
as  intimately  dependent  on  child  labor  as  the 
glass  bottle  industry  is  said  to  be,  the  child 
labor  is  only  incidental  to  the  supply  of  fuel ; 
that  for  the  average  manufacturer,  machin- 
ery and  adults  are  cheaper  in  the  long  run 
than  children,  and  that  the  existence  of  child 
labor  in  an  industry  lowers  the  value  of  the 
product.  Not  only  does  child  labor  play 
havoc  with  the  industry  of  the  present,  but  it 
detracts  materially  from  the  industrial  pos- 
sibilities of  the  future. 

III.  The  Cost  to  Industry 

“ It  may  be  stated  as  a safe  proposition 
that  for  every  dollar  earned  by  a child  under 
fourteen  years  of  age,  tenfold  will  be  taken 
from  their  earning  capacity  in  later  years.”  1 
Children  are  inefficient  as  child  workers,  and 
become  inefficient  adults  because  of  their 
work  as  children. 

These  statements  hold  true  under  many 
different  conditions.  The  Massachusetts 

1 “ A Business  Man’s  View  of  Child  Labor.”  By  S.  W. 
Woodward.  Annals  of  American  Academy , vol.  xxvii,  p.  362. 


78 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


Commission  above  quoted  reports  that  eighty 
per  cent,  of  the  children  at  work  between  the 
ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  are  in  mills  and 
unskilled  industries.  “ For  the  great  major- 
ity of  children  who  leave  school  and  enter  em- 
ployments at  the  age  of  fourteen  or  fifteen, 
the  first  three  or  four  years  are  practically 
waste  years  so  far  as  the  actual  productive 
value  of  the  child  is  concerned,  and  so  far  as 
increasing  his  industrial  or  productive  ef- 
ficiency. ’ ’ 1 From  the  standpoint  of  the  indus- 
try it  is  clearly  a waste  of  industrial  effi- 
ciency and  future  producing  capacity  to  have 
children  begin  work  at  an  early  age.  The 
problem  of  securing  efficient  workers  to-day  is 
only  one  of  the  problems  of  industry.  Quite 
as  important,  if  not  more  so,  is  the  problem 
of  securing  efficient  workers  in  the  future. 

Before  the  Industrial  Commission,  Chief 
Factory  Inspector  Campbell  of  Pennsylvania 
was  asked : — 

“ Question.  What  effect  has  the  employment  of  children 
on  the  wages  of  adult  labor? 

“ Answer.  There  is  no  doubt  it  has  some  effect. 

1 Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Industrial 
and  Technical  Education,  p.  18. 


CHILD  LABOR— INDUSTRIAL  WASTE  79 


“Question.  You  believe  it  has  an  injurious  effect? 

“ Answer.  There  is  no  doubt  of  it  at  all  in  my  mind.”  1 

The  Secretary-Treasurer  of  the  Boot  and 
Shoe  Makers’  Union,  testifying  before  the 
same  commission,  said: — “ The  introduction 
of  child  labor  is  quite  a factor,  sometimes  dis- 
placing the  head  of  the  family.  There  was 
an  instance  in  Marlboro  where  a man  was 
receiving  $2.00  a day;  the  firm  turned  him 
off  and  put  in  his  own  son  at  $1.00  at  the 
same  job.” 2 

Many  authorities,  dealing  with  the  eco- 
nomic side  of  child  labor,  lay  special  em- 
phasis on  this  point,  insisting  that  men  must 
give  place  to  children,  when  the  latter  are 
willing  to  work  at  a considerably  lower 
figure. 

There  can  be  little  question  that  the  em- 
ployment of  children  disemploys  adults. 
Whether  or  no  these  adults  ultimately  find 
work  in  some  new  industry  which  springs  up 
in  response  to  the  constantly  increasing  de- 
mands of  civilization,  is  aside  from  the  ques- 

1 Industrial  Commission,  vol.  vii,  p.  52. 

2 Hid.,  p.  363. 


80 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


tion.  That  they  are  displaced,  at  least  tem- 
porarily, is  evident. 

But  the  problem  has  an  even  more  serious 
side.  Child  labor  results  in  lowering  the 
wage  standard  of  the  entire  group  in  which 
it  exists.  The  argument  is  well  put  by  Car- 
roll  D.  Wright  in  the  following  words: — 
“ There  seems,  in  recent  times,  to  have  oc- 
curred a change  in  the  relation  of  wages  to 
support,  so  that,  more  and  more,  the  labor  of 
the  whole  family  is  necessary  to  the  support 
of  the  family;  that,  in  the  majority  of  cases, 
working  men  in  the  commonwealth  do  not 
support  their  families  by  their  individual 
earnings  alone.  The  fathers  rely  or  are 
forced  to  depend  upon  their  children  under 
fifteen  years  of  age,  who  supply,  by  their 
labor,  from  one-eighth  to  one-sixth  of  the 
total  family  earnings.  ’ ’ 1 

Looking  at  the  matter  from  the  standpoint 
of  practical  experience  in  the  mines,  John 
Mitchell  gave  the  following  testimony  before 
the  Industrial  Commission: — 

1 Carroll  D.  Wright,  Sixth  Annual  Report,  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Labor,  p.  384. 


CHILD  LABOR— INDUSTRIAL  WASTE  81 


“ Question.  Does  the  influence  of  child  labor  reach  into 
all  classes  of  miners?  For  instance,  if  you  find  a man 
with  three  or  four  boys,  and  you  find  another  man  who, 
perhaps,  has  a large  family  of  girls.  ...  If  it  comes  to 
a question  of  competition  between  these  men,  who  will 
succeed  and  why? 

“ Answer.  The  one  having  the  boys  would  because  they 
would  obtain  work  in  the  mines.”  1 

Both  phases  of  the  question  are  thus  sum- 
marized by  John  Spargo: — “It  is  a well- 
known  fact  that  the  competition  of  children 
with  their  elders  entails  serious  consequences 
of  a twofold  nature,  first,  in  the  displace- 
ment of  adults,  and,  second,  in  the  lowering 
of  their  wage  standards.”2  There  is  no 
question  among  the  authorities  on  the  sub- 
ject. All  are  agreed  that  the  labor  of  chil- 
dren replaces  the  labor  of  men,  or  else  forces 
the  men  to  take  lower  wages  as  a result  of  the 
child  competition. 

This  displacement  of  men  by  children,  and 
the  lowering  of  men’s  wages  by  a competition 
with  child  wages,  means  to  the  laboring  men 
who  are  affected  by  it,  a lowered  standard  of 
life.  The  man  who  has  a family  of  half- 

1 Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  xii,  p.  46. 

2 The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children.  By  John  Spargo.  New 
York:  Macmillan,  1906.  P.  192. 


82 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


grown  children  must  send  them  to  work  in  an 
endeavor  to  supplement  the  family  income, 
and  the  man  who  has  a family  of  small  chil- 
dren to  keep,  or  no  children  at  all,  must  suf- 
fer because  of  this  child  competition.  In 
some  cases,  child  labor  is  impossible,  because 
of  the  character  of  the  work,  but  in  the  textile 
industries,  the  glass  works,  and  the  tobacco 
factories,  children  are  employed  and  men  dis- 
charged. 

Is  child  labor  “ an  industrial  waste  ”? 
Among  the  thinking  men  who  have  gone  care- 
fully over  the  ground,  there  is  but  one  an- 
swer. Child  labor  cheapens  the  product,  low- 
ers the  industrial  standard  of  the  present, 
and  threatens  the  industrial  standard  of  the 
future. 


CHAPTER  Y 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR 

I.  The  Discussion  of  Causes 

In  the  voluminous  literature  which  has  re- 
cently appeared  on  the  general  subject  of 
clfild  labor,  little  careful  attention  has  been 
devoted  to  the  causes  underlying  the  prob- 
lem. The  history  of  child  labor  has  been  re- 
lated; its  evils  have  been  depicted  in  minut- 
est detail;  remedies  innumerable  have  been 
suggested;  but  nowhere  has  particular  em- 
phasis been  laid  upon  the  reasons  for  its  ex- 
istence. Child  labor  literature  clearly  shows 
that  many  of  the  writers  have  assumed  cer- 
tain causes  and  then,  with  this  assumption  as 
a basis,  they  have  proceeded  to  devise  and  ap- 
ply remedies. 

This  chapter  aims  to  show  that  the  co- 
ercive, legislative  remedies  that  have  been 
adopted  are  not  calculated  to  work  a perma- 
83 


84 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


nent  cure  for  the  evils  of  child  labor,  because 
they  are  directed  at  its  result  rather  than 
at  its  cause. 

What  are  the  causes  of  modern  child  la- 
bor! An  answer  to  the  question  may  be 
found  by  discussing  four  general  groups  of 
causes: — (1)  industrial  evolution;  (2)  greed; 
(3)  necessity;  (4)  ignorance  and  indifference. 
The  next  few  pages  will  be  devoted  to  an 
analysis  of  these  groups  in  order  to  ascer- 
tain, if  possible,  which  one  or  which  com- 
bination of  them  is  the  moving  force  which 
has  sent  three-quarters  of  a million  of  chil- 
dren into  the  industries  of  the  United 
States. 

II.  Industrial  Evolution 

Without  the  factory  system  child  labor  in 
its  present  form  would  be  impossible.  Dur- 
ing a period  of  150  years  industry  has  gone 
from  the  home  to  the  factory,  involving  in 
the  transition  the  minute  subdivisions  of  la- 
bor which  must  necessarily  accompany  work 
on  a large  scale.  The  operations  requiring 
skill  are  performed  by  skilled  persons,  and 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  85 


those  which  are  purely  mechanical  are  per- 
formed by  an  unskilled  laborer  until  a ma- 
chine is  invented  to  replace  him. 

Modern  invention  has  gone  so  deeply  into 
the  details  of  mechanical  operations,  and 
division  of  labor  has  rendered  the  part  which 
any  one  man  performs  so  simple,  that  it  is  an 
easy  matter  to  substitute  the  actions  of  a 
machine  for  the  mechanical,  standardized 
work  of  an  unskilled  or  often  of  a semi- 


hence  the  opportunity  for  machine  tending, — 
a purely  mechanical  task,  possible  even  for  a 
child;  hence  the  opportunity  for  an  unskilled 
child  to  become  a part  of  the  most  intricate 
system  of  manufacturing,  by  performing 
one  infinitely  small  operation  in  connection 
with  many  other  operations,  which,  com- 
bined and  unified,  result  in  a substantial 
product. 

Can  this  industrial  evolution  which  has  re- 
made industry  be  described  as  a cause  of 
child  labor?  If  this  view  of  the  situation 
he  accepted,  it  is  apparent  that  the  responsi- 
bility for  the  prevalence  and  increase  of 


skilled 


modern  machinery; 


86 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


child  labor  in  a modern  community  may  be 
placed  upon  the  character  of  modern  in- 
dustry. 

In  the  South,  where  child  labor  in  the  cot- 
ton mills  has  developed  some  of  the  worst 
child  labor  conditions  with  which  the  country 
must  contend,  machinery  is  being  built  just 
high  enough  to  accommodate  a child.  Is  it, 
however,  fair  to  say  that  the  child  labor  in  the 
Southern  mills  is  due  to  the  character  of  the 
machinery  which  is  being  introduced  into 
those  mills? 

An  unknowing  organism,  such  as  a ma- 
chine, can  scarcely  be  held  responsible,  if, 
while  operated  by  human  intelligence,  it  be- 
comes a party  to  a social  wrong ; yet  the  re- 
sponsibility must  rest  somewhere.  Is  it  rea- 
sonable to  place  the  responsibility  for  child 
labor  upon  a machine  which  is  being  used,  as 
the  servant  of  man?  Such  an  explanation  is 
clearly  inadequate.  It  leads  to  no  conclu- 
sion as  to  the  cause  that  is  sending  the  chil- 
dren to  work. 

The  evolution  of  modern  industry  unques- 
tionably forms  the  basis  upon  which  child 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  8T 


labor  rests ; but  so  does  the  use  of  fire ; so  the 
atmosphere;  so  the  old  earth  herself.  Mod- 
ern industry  forms  the  basis  for  the  ex- 
istence of  child  labor,  just  as  the  crust  on 
the  surface  of  the  earth  forms  the  basis  for 
man’s  life.  Each  allows  of  the  continuance 
of  certain  activities,  but  in  neither  case  can 
the  immediate  cause  be  traced  to  modern  in- 
dustry or  to  the  earth’s  crust.  The  earth’s 
crust  is  never  spoken  of  as  the  “ cause  ” of 
men’s  activity;  no  more  can  modern  industry 
be  described  as  the  cause  of  child  labor. 
Child  labor  without  modern  industry  would 
be  impossible,  yet  modern  industry  cannot  be 
described  as  the  active  cause  which  is  at  pres- 
ent leading  children  to  work. 

Where,  then,  can  the  responsibility  be  laid? 
It  must  clearly  depend  on  some  personal  fac- 
tor. Can  the  responsibility  be  laid  upon  the 
parent  who,  in  ignorance  of  what  the  ultimate 
consequences  will  be,  sends  the  child  out  to 
labor  in  the  fields  of  modern  industry ; upon 
the  parent  who  is  compelled  by  the  presence 
of  many  children  and  few  dollars  to  supple- 
ment the  family  income  in  every  conceivable 


88  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

manner  in  order  to  provide  an  adequate  sub- 
sistence ! 

And  what  can  be  said  of  the  manufacturer 
who  employs  the  children,  often  in  ignorance 
of  the  facts,  but  with  adequate  opportunity 
to  discover  them  if  he  so  desires!  Of  the 
manufacturer  who  pays  $2  or  $3  as  wages  for 
child  labor,  and  takes  an  enormous  surplus  in 
profits!  Of  the  manufacturer  who  know- 
ingly, for  the  sake  of  an  extra  automobile  or 
some  other  plaything  that  may  appeal  to  his 
fancy,  takes  from  the  children  the  vitality 
and  life  which  he  can  never  replace!  Of  the 
employer  who  pays  his  adult  laborers  such 
low  wages  that  it  is  a physical  impossibility 
for  them  to  bring  up  a family  and  procure 
not  the  luxuries,  but  the  bare  necessities  of 
life,  and  who  are,  therefore,  compelled  to 
send  their  children  at  the  earliest  moment 
into  the  mills! 

And  what  shall  the  community  which  per- 
mits such  a system  to  prevail  answer  for  it- 
self! The  community  which  allows  an  em- 
ployer to  pay  wages  that  are  below  the  line 
of  possible  subsistence,  and  to  take  from  the 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  89 

children  services  for  which  he  gives  no  ade- 
quate return;  which  allows  parents,  often 
through  blind  greed,  to  live  from  the  work  of 
their  children  ; which  allows  the  child,  the 
future  mainstay  of  civilization,  to  enter  upon 
a life  that  may  lead  to  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  decay  or  ruin? 

Which  one,  or  which  combination  of  these 
factors  is  sending  children  to  work? 

III.  Greed  as  a Cause  of  Child  Labor 

Greed  means  a desire  for  appetite  satis- 
faction. Defined  thus,  how  extensively  does 
it  enter  as  a cause  of  child  labor? 

“ They  most  all  leave  after  their  First 
Communion.  The  boys  want  to  gamble,  and 
some  of  the  girls  want  to  buy  fancy  ribbons, 
so  they  go  to  work,  and  in  a short  time  you 
tell  them  by  the  ‘ factory  voice,  ’ — all  the  fac- 
tory children  have  it, — especially  the  girls.” 
In  these  words  the  principal  of  a large  paro- 
chial school  portrayed  the  greed  of  the  child, 
and  it  is  a very  real  factor  in  the  situation. 
From  many  homes  children  go  out  to  work, 
not  because  there  is  any  necessity  nor  even 


90 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


any  wish  on  the  part  of  the  parent,  but  be- 
cause the  child  longs  to  become  a wage-earner, 
and  indulge  in  freedom  which  comes  only 
with  pocket  money.  Among  the  great  major- 
ity of  boys  pocket  money  is  a rarity  unless 
they  are  at  work,  and  in  view  of  the  char- 
acter of  modern  ideals,  it  is  not  strange  that 
the  average  youngster  should  be  so  anxious 
to  get  his  share. 

In  the  small  industrial  towns,  many  cases 
are  found  where  the  child  leaves  school 
against  the  parents’  wishes  and  goes  to  work. 
When  compelled  to  return  to  school,  the  child 
“ plays  hookey,”  and  gets  back  to  the  fac- 
tory, or  mine,  or  mill,  where  his  friends  are 
employed.  “ All  the  boys  is  at  work,  and  I 
ain’t  goin’  to  go  to  school,”  is  an  attitude 
often  found  where  most  of  the  boys  work,  and 
where,  if  nine  members  of  “ the  gang  ” are 
earning  wages,  it  requires  strenuous  pulling 
in  the  opposite  direction  to  keep  the  last 
member  in  school. 

The  age  of  youth  is  the  age  of  education. 
Children  are  not  expected  to  form  mature 
judgments,  nor  to  understand  what  things 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  91 


are  best  for  them  to  do,  hence  it  is  manifestly 
ridiculous  to  expect  the  child  to  be  able  to 
decide  judiciously  between  the  school,  with 
its  education,  and  work,  with  its  freedom  and 
pocket  money. 

The  desire  of  the  child  to  get  money,  and 
the  things  which  money  buys,  can  scarcely  be 
classed  as  greed,  nor  can  it  be  assigned  as  a 
moving  cause  of  child  labor.  It  is  rather  an 
incidental  one.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
a greed  of  parents  which  deserves  the  most 
absolute  condemnation. 

In  one  soft-coal  mining  town  a man  was 
found  who,  though  hale  and  hearty,  spent 
most  of  his  time  carousing  at  the  saloon.  He 
was  enabled  to  do  this  because  his  three  boys, 
of  nineteen,  seventeen,  and  eleven,  were 
steadily  employed  in  the  mines,  where  they 
were  able  to  make  an  average  of  about  $100 
a month,  when  the  work  was  good.  The  fam- 
ily owned  a farm  of  sixty-five  acres,  a good 
house  and  barn,  and  a horse  and  cow.  One 
sister  was  making  good  wages  “ working 
out,”  and  the  mother  did  her  best.  Thus, 
in  spite  of  father’s  idleness,  the  family 


92  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

lived  very  well  and  kept  him  in  liquor 
besides. 

Such  cases  are  comparatively  rare  in  the 
North,  but  in  the  South  the  prevalence  of 
child  labor  and  parental  idleness  is  notorious, 
and  has  developed  into  a definite  social  cus- 
tom. A poor  white,  idling  at  mid-day  around 
the  saloon  in  a small  Southern  town,  is  said 
to  have  replied  to  an  investigator,  “ What 
all’s  the  use  of  me  workin’  when  I have  three 
head  of  gals  in  the  mill?  ” 

“ Greedy  and  indifferent  parents,”  you 
will  say.  That  is  very  true.  These  cases, 
and  many  like  them  which  might  be  cited, 
present  that  side  of  the  problem.  There  are 
parents  who  consider  their  children  as  an  as- 
set from  which  they  have  a right  to  live,  as 
they  would  live  from  their  horses,  or  garden 
patches,  or  any  other  possession.  Yet  these 
cases  are  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule. 
“ Greedy  and  indifferent  parents  ” are  not 
so  prevalent  in  the  community  as  many 
writers  on  child  labor  would  have  their  read- 
ers suppose.  Cases  constantly  come  to  light, 
where,  for  a mess  of  pottage,  parents  sell 


THE  CAUSES  OP  CHILD  LABOR  93 


their  children  into  industrial  slavery.  Yet  a 
close  acquaintance  with  the  parents  of  work- 
ing children  shows  that  they  are  very  much 
like  other  parents.  They  love  their  children 
as  much  and  have  as  much  care  for  their  well- 
being as  other  fathers  and  mothers.  They 
send  them  to  work,  as  a rule,  only  when 
necessity  demands  it. 

Would  many  “ pocket-money-saving  ” chil- 
dren and  a few  greedy  parents  have  caused 
the  child  labor  problem?  Undoubtedly  not. 
Neither  childish  love  of  money  nor  parental 
greed  can  be  assigned  as  a leading  cause,  nor 
even  as  an  important  cause  of  child  labor. 

Can  the  same  be  said  of  the  greedy  em- 
ployer,— greedy,  not  for  children,  but  for 
profits;  the  manufacturer  who  must  needs 
have  profits  even  though  he  grind  up  a few 
children’s  futures  in  the  getting  of  them? 

All  manufacturers  are  not  greedy.  Many 
give  attention  and  study  to  the  child  labor 
problem,  because  they  feel  that  it  is  hurting 
them  as  well  as  the  public  at  large,  but  there 
are  a group  of  manufacturers  who  are  madly 
struggling  for  wealth,  and  so  madly  do  they 


94  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

struggle,  that  they  overlook  all  human  rela- 
tions and  obligations.  Wealth  they  must 
have,  and  that  quickly.  Children  are  worn 
out  in  the  process?  No  matter.  Homes  are 
wrecked  and  the  community  made  poorer  by 
the  loss  of  some  of  its  best  bone  and  sinew? 
No  matter.  Look  at  our  ledger,  look  at  our 
cashbook,  look  at  our  undivided  surplus ! 
Look  at  them, — and  then  behind  them. 

Such  employers  are  in  the  smallest  mi- 
nority, yet  when  they  exist  in  a competitive 
industry,  their  competitors  must  do  as  they 
do  or  go  out  of  business.  Morris  Hillquit 
once  said,  in  the  course  of  a speech: — “ If 
Jesus  Christ  came  on  earth  to-day  and  estab- 
lished a coat  shop  on  Hester  Street,  he  would 
be  forced  to  do  one  of  two  things, — either  to 
exploit  his  workers  or  to  go  out  of  business.” 
The  same  thing  holds  good  for  child  labor. 
The  meanest,  hardest,  cheapest  employer  sets 
the  pace.  One  such  can  force  nineteen  others 
to  provide  for  their  employees  the  most  rig- 
orous of  working  conditions,  or  fall  behind  in 
the  race  for  business. 

It  is  to  protect  the  children  from  this  class 


THE  CAUSES  OP  CHILD  LABOR  95 


of  employers  that  child  labor  laws  are  en- 
acted. They  are  men  hungering  after 
profits, — and  when  they  take  them  in  the  form 
of  children,  the  community  balances  the  ac- 
count. But  competition  is  disappearing  from 
industry,  and  is  being  replaced  by  combina- 
tion. Moreover,  manufacturers  are  coming 
to  see,  more  and  more,  the  undesirability  and 
the  unprofitableness  of  child  labor.  Child 
labor  has  ceased  to  be  an  industrial  benefit 
and  has  become  instead  an  industrial  detri- 
ment. And  the  thinking  manufacturer 
recognizes  this  fact.  But  even  granting  for 
the  sake  of  argument  that  the  average  em- 
ployer is  a profit-hungry,  child-grabbing 
ogre,  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  children 
to  get  into  the  mills  unless  they  were  willing 
to  go,  or  unless  their  parents  were  willing  to 
send  them.  The  manufacturer  may  provide 
the  means  for  child  labor,  but  he  cannot  secure 
the  children  without  their  consent,  or  that  of 
their  parents. 

The  statements  which  are  constantly  made, 
laying  the  entire  blame  for  child  labor  upon 
the  manufacturer,  are,  therefore,  unfounded 


96 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


and  unfair.  The  employer  may,  as  in  the 
case  of  industrial  evolution,  make  child  labor 
possible,  but  he  does  not  actively  cause  it. 

There  is  still  another  factor — the  greedy 
public.  “ Give  us  dividends,”  cry  the  stock- 
holders, “ give  us  dividends,  and  big  ones!  ” 
and  the  president  of  the  company,  with  his 
salary  at  stake,  turns  in  the  children.  ‘ ‘ Give 
us  bargains,”  cry  the  consumers,  “ give  us 
bargains,  and  cheap  ones,”  and  the  retailer, 
his  business  at  stake,  turns  to  the  sweat  shop 
and  child  labor. 

A demand  for  cheap  finery,  for  bargains, 
for  cheap  goods  of  all  kinds,  is  a/demand  on 
the  sweat  shop  and  on  child  labor.  Child 
labor  goods  are  cheap  goods.  The  South  has 
found  this  true  to  her  cost.  It  requires  skill 
to  produce  quality  as  much  as  it  ever  did  be- 
fore the  invention  of  the  machinery  which  is 
doing  the  heavy  and  mechanical  work  of  the 
world. 

But  the  public,  by  its  insatiable  demand  for 
cheapness,  furnishes  the  manufacturer  with 
the  incentive  for  cheap  production.  He,  in 
turn,  advertises  for  child  labor.  One  factor 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  97 


is  the  complement  of  the  other.  Neither, 
however,  furnishes  an  explanation  of  the 
hosts  of  working  children  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  The  public  may  demand  tawdry 
products;  the  machinery  may  be  built  to  ac- 
commodate a child;  the  manufacturer  may 
advertise,  “ Small  girls  wanted,”  but  why 
do  the  small  girls  come?  For  the  explana- 
tion search  must  be  made  elsewhere. 

IV.  Necessity  and  Child  Labor 

“ When  I was  a boy  of  seven,  I went  to 
work,  and  I don’t  see  any  good  reason  why 
boys  shouldn’t  do  it  now.  I learned  my 
business  that  way,  and  from  my  point  of 
view,  it’s  better  to  learn  it  by  starting  at 
the  bottom  and  working  up.”  This  attitude 
is  a common  one,  but  much  less  common  than 
it  was  ten  years  ago.  Men  are  learning  that 
their  doing  things  in  a particular  way  fur- 
nishes no  good  reason  why  the  next  genera- 
tion should  do  things  in  the  same  way. 
Progress  can  be  made  only  when  each  genera- 
tion does  things  a little  differently. 

There  are  still  a few  people  who  use  the 


98  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

“ I started  to  work  at  seven  ” argument  to 
prevent  the  enactment  of  child  labor  legisla- 
tion, but  a careful  review  of  the  facts  in  the 
case  shows  that  these  men  “ started  to  work 
at  seven  ’ ’ as  helpers  on  a farm  or  in  a coun- 
try store,  where  all-round  educational  work 
was  the  daily  routine.  The  owner  of  the 
farm  or  store  was  a friend  of  the  family,  and 
“ wanted  to  see  Jim’s  kid  get  a'good  start.” 
From  first  to  last  there  was  a close  personal 
contact  between  the  “ boss  ” and  the  boy. 
From  work  on  such  a basis,  it  is  a long  and 
fatal  step  to  work  in  a modern  factory  or 
mill,  or  store,  where  all  is  minute  subdivi- 
sion of  tasks  and  of  responsibility. 

The  boy  who  went  to  work  on  a farm  or 
in  a country  store,  “ learned  the  business  ” 
early  because  the  head  of  the  business  had  a 
keen  interest  in  his  success,  and  kept  close 
watch  of  every  stage  in  his  progress.  He 
was  given  the  best  chance  that  there  was  to 
succeed.  At  all  times  he  was  under  the 
watchful  eye  of  “ the  firm.”  Under  modern 
industrial  conditions  the  boy  starting  to  work 
has  little  more  chance  of  ‘ ‘ learning  the  busi- 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  99 


ness,”  than  a British  tar  has  of  becoming 
Lord  High  Admiral.  Furthermore,  one- 
third  of  the  child  laborers  are  girls  who  do 
not  wish  to  “ learn  the  business,” — who  are 
not  even  wanted  in  the  business.  They  have 
a commodity  to  sell, — their  labor, — and  they 
are  willing  to  sell  it  cheaply  to  the  employer 
who  hires  them.  It  is  a mere  matter  of  bar- 
gain and  sale. 

Again,  the  school  has  to-day  in  large  meas- 
ure replaced  the  “ learning  a business  ” in 
the  old  way.  Some  firms,  particularly  those 
engaged  in  technical  work,  will  scarcely  take 
any  but  college  men  in  the  higher  branches 
of  their  business.  There  is  a great  and  an 
increasing  demand  for  men  trained  in  Trade 
and  Manual  Training  Schools,  and  such  are 
given  the  preference.  The  time  is  past 
when  it  is  necessary  for  a boy  to  go  to  work 
at  seven  or  ten,  or  even  fourteen,  to  learn  the 
business.  It  is  becoming  a universal  rule  in 
many  houses  to  insist  on  the  completion  of  a 
certain  amount  of  high  school  or  college  work 
before  starting  in  business.  There  is  no 
longer  a necessity  for  the  child  to  go  to  work 


100  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

at  an  early  age  in  order  to  learn  to  do  his 
part  of  the  world’s  work. 

Clearly,  then,  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
child,  there  is  no  excuse  for  his  working  at 
an  early  age.  There  is  no  necessity  of  child 
labor  for  a “ learning  of  the  business.”  But 
there  are  other  sides  to  the  necessity  prob- 
lem. From  the  standpoint  of  the  child,  there 
is  no  necessity.  What  of  the  parent? 

“ The  devil  can  cite  Scripture  for  his  pur- 
pose.” The  man  looking  for  a justification 
of  some  policy  will  most  easily  find  it  in  a 
plea  that  a particular  act  is  necessary  to  pre- 
vent individual  hardship  and  suffering. 

It  is  probably  fair  to  say  that  no  legisla- 
ture which  ever  met  to  discuss  a child  labor 
bill  was  not  confronted  with  the  “ widowed 
mother  ” argument.  Indeed,  it  sometimes 
happens  that  the  very  firm  whose  unguarded 
machinery  snuffed  out  the  life  of  the  father, 
will  plead  hardest  for  the  protection  of  the 
‘ ‘ helpless  widow  and  her  baby  orphans,  ’ ’ and 
will  allow  the  “ baby  orphans  ” to  get  the 
same  place  in  the  same  factory  that  was 
responsible  for  the  death  of  the  father. 


THE  CAUSES  OP  CHILD  LABOR  101 

It  is  a noticeable  fact  that  the  “ widowed 
mother  ” argument  is  always  used  by  the  em- 
ployer— never  by  the  labor  union  interests 
which,  representing  the  interests  of  the 
woman  and  her  children,  to  whom  they  may 
well  be  paying  death  benefits,  is  almost 
unanimous  in  urging  greater  restrictions  on 
the  employment  of  children. 

The  necessity  of  the  “ widowed  mother,” 
so  often  and  so  effectively  used  to  prevent  the 
change  of  bad  conditions,  is  clearly  represent- 
ative of  only  a small  portion  of  working  chil- 
dren. Probably  not  more  than  one  working 
child  in  a hundred  is  the  sole  support  of  a 
widowed  mother.  At  the  present  time  there 
is,  however,  a great  group  of  workers  in 
the  United  States  whose  wages  are  so  low 
as  to  make  it  practically  impossible  for 
them  to  provide  a decent  living  for  their 
children. 

Aside  from  the  necessity  arising  in  the 
family  because  of  the  disability  of  its  head, 
there  are  cases  in  every  community  of  men 
employed  as  unskilled  and  as  semi-skilled 
laborers,  who  have  large  families, — their 


102 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


name  is  legion.  The  average  pay  of  such 
men  is  $1.50  a day,  or  $9.00  a week.  In  a 
modern  city  one-fifth  of  this  income  goes  for 
rent.  Setting  aside  25  cents  a week  for  light, 
and  50  cents  for  fuel,  there  remains  $6.50.  A 
man  and  his  wife  and  four  children,  ranging 
in  ages  from  one  to  seven  years,  will  thus 
have  less  than  a dollar  a day  to  pay  for  cloth- 
ing, medicine,  car  fare,  and  extras.  If  we 
allow  two-thirds  of  this  $6.50  for  food,  it 
will  mean  that  each  of  the  twenty-one  meals 
eaten  in  the  week  must  be  gotten  for  20 
cents, — a 20-cent  meal  for  six  persons. 

The  words,  “ greedy  and  indifferent  par- 
ents ” are  often  emphasized  in  speaking  and 
writing  about  child  labor.  In  the  case  of  the 
unskilled  worker,  the  parent  who  sends  the 
children  to  work  at  fourteen  or  even  thir- 
teen, is  neither  greedy  nor  indifferent. 

Eliminating  the  “ widowed  mother,”  there 
is  a family  necessity,  common  in  every  in- 
dustrial community,  which  results  in  the 
child’s  being  sent  to  the  mill.  Here  is  a clear 
undoubted  case  of  necessity, — a necessity 
which  is  being  felt  more  keenly  every  day  as 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  103 


the  rise  in  wages  lags  behind  the  jump  in  the 
cost  of  living.  It  is  a necessity  so  real  that 
children  are  sent  to  the  mills,  not  because  par- 
ents are  “ greedy  and  indifferent,”  but  be- 
cause the  whole  amount  which  a hard-work- 
ing day  laborer  can  earn  will  not  keep  his 
family  supplied  with  the  necessities,  not  to 
mention  the  luxuries  of  life. 

In  addition  to  pleading  for  the  widow  and 
the  orphan,  the  employer  who  fights  child 
labor  legislation  invariably  pleads  for  him- 
self. The  point  is  well  illustrated  by  a com- 
ment from  the  National  Glass  Budget , pub- 
lished in  Pittsburg  and  representing  the  glass 
manufacturing  interest. 

Let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  New  York 
children  under  sixteen  work  only  eight  hours 
per  day,  and  those  hours  must  be  between 
eight  a.m.  and  five  p.m.;  in  Illinois  no  child 
under  sixteen  may  work  after  seven  p.m.  or 
before  seven  a.m.;  but  in  Pennsylvania  chil- 
dren of  fourteen  may  work  in  glass  houses 
at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night,  providing 
this  working  time  does  not  exceed  eight  con- 
secutive hours.  In  view  of  these  facts,  and 


104  CHILD  LABOE  PEOBLEM 

of  a law  prepared  to  bring  legislation  in 
Pennsylvania  nearer  the  high  standard  at- 
tained by  New  York  and  Illinois,  the  Budget 
says : — ‘ ‘ In  other  words,  our  legislators  will 
be  requested  to  lend  their  support  to  a move- 
ment which,  if  successful,  will  drive  out  of 
our  state  the  industries  which  have  lifted  her 
up  to  the  proud  position  of  first  place  in  the 
galaxy  of  states.”1 

It  is  a common  argument  often  heard,  and 
echoed  and  re-echoed  in  the  legislative  halls. 
In  Pennsylvania  the  argument  was  crystal- 
lized into  the  law  of  1905.  No  child,  says  the 
law,  under  sixteen,  may  work  between  the 
hours  of  nine  p.m.  and  six  a.m.,  except 
“ where  the  material  in  process  of  manu- 
facture ” would  be  wasted  if  allowed  to 
stand  over  night,  and,  “ to  prevent  waste  or 
destruction  of  such  material,”  boys  of  four- 
teen may  work  at  any  hour  of  the  night. 
Blessed  “ material  in  process  of  manufac- 
ture,” what  crimes  do  Americans  commit  in 
thy  name ! 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  manu- 

1 National  Glass  Budget,  December  22,  1906. 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  105 


facturers  are  coming  to  see  more  and  more 
clearly  that  child  labor  is  not  necessary  to 
industry,  but  is  in  most  cases  positively 
harmful.  Tradition  decrees  that  in  glass 
bottle  works,  children  of  nine  and  ten  must 
be  hired  to  carry  the  bottles  because  they  are 
“ nimble  ” and  can  “ handle  themselves,” 
yet  in  certain  factories  machinery  has  been 
introduced  which  replaces  the  boys  and  saves 
money. 

What  part  does  “ Necessity  ” play  among 
the  causes  of  child  labor?  The  necessary 
thing  for  a young  American  to  do  is  to  at- 
tend school.  There  is  no  necessity  for  his 
working  in  order  to  “ learn  the  business.” 
The  necessity  of  child  labor  to  the  manufac- 
turer is  traditional  rather  than  real.  The 
only  really  important  part  played  by  neces- 
sity, is  the  actual  need  of  the  great  group  of 
parents  whose  wage  is  so  low  as  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  bringing  up  their  family 
decently,  in  the  absence  of  some  addition  to 
the  man’s  wage.  And  this  necessity  of  the 
unskilled  worker’s  family  is  a real,  vital 
cause  sending  children  to  work. 


106 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


V.  Ignorance  and  Indifference  as  Causes  of 
Child  Labor 

The  average  child  likes  to  “ earn  money.” 
There  is  a fascination  about  it,  and  an  ex- 
citement accompanying  it  that  is  well  nigh 
irresistible  to  the  healthy  American  boy. 

“ How  do  yon  like  the  mines,  Tom?  ” I 
asked  a fourteen-year-old  boy  who  had  been 
working  for  some  time  in  a soft-coal  mine. 

“ I don’t  like  ’em.  Just  at  first  it  was  all 
to  the  good.  We  was  dirty  and  nobody  said 
nothin’  to  us.  We  used  to  carry  dinner-pails 
and  the  school  kids  wished  they  was  us.  It 
went  good  for  a month  or  so,  and  then  I be- 
gins to  get  tired,  and  wants  to  lay  off,  but 
‘ No  sir,’  says  the  old  man,  ‘ you  started  in 
and  you  got  to  stick  at  it.’  It  ain’t  no  fun 
after  the  first  month,  I can  tell  ye.” 

This  case  is  typical  of  a large  number.  It 
is  no  uncommon  thing  to  find  children  going 
to  work  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  childhood, 
taking  up  a “job,”  and  soon  tiring  of  it. 
By  that  time,  however,  the  parents  have  felt 
the  added  value  of  the  wages  of  the  child  to 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  107 


the  family  income,  and  there  is  a tendency  to 
insist  on  the  child’s  staying  at  work,  even  in 
cases  where  the  parent  originally  insisted 
that  the  child  remain  in  school. 

Investigations  have  shown  that  when  the 
child  does  get  tired  of  one  job  and  quits,  he 
simply  goes  to  some  other  form  of  labor. 
From  this  arises  one  of  the  worst  abuses  of 
child  labor,  the  rapid  change  from  one  in- 
dustry to  another,  and  the  consequent  failure 
to  become  proficient  along  any  line.  Thus, 
in  addition  to  the  evil  effects  of  the  work  and 
lack  of  schooling,  the  child  early  acquires  the 
‘ ‘ moving  on  ’ ’ habit,  which  grows  up  with  the 
constant  changing  of  jobs,  and,  if  fully  de- 
veloped, results  inevitably  in  the  professional 
“ tramp,”  who  is  always  “ moving  on.” 

The  child  goes  to  work  through  ignorance 
of  the  real  conditions  of  life,  and  of  the  good 
things  sacrificed.  A bright  lad  in  school 
often  becomes  a stolid  drudge  in  the  factory, 
never  learning,  never  rising,  condemned  be- 
cause of  inefficiency  to  be  a common  drudge 
to  the  end  of  his  days. 

The  children  are  ignorant  of  the  step  they 


108 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


are  taking  when  they  begin  to  work  in  a fac- 
tory without  having  had  a chance  to  learn  the 
best  things  in  the  schools,  while  without  the 
consent  of  parents  this  step  would  be  im- 
possible. Yet,  the  child  who  goes  to  work  in 
ignorance  of  conditions  and  of  ultimate  con- 
sequences, is  by  no  means  culpable,  nor  is  it 
reasonable  to  describe  childish  ignorance  as  a 
cause  of  child  labor. 

In  many  families  a real  need  exists  for  the 
wages  that  the  child  can  earn,  because  the 
wage  of  the  father  is  so  low  that  he  cannot 
support  himself.  In  many  other  cases,  the 
parents  are  not  actively  interested  in  the 
question  of  the  school  and  of  child  labor. 

“ I don’t  believe  it  hurts  Sam  to  work 
nights,”  said  one  father;  “ he’s  strong  and 
he  likes  the  work.”  The  boy  was  fourteen 
years  old.  But  the  parent  had  never  been 
taught  that  the  growing  body  needs  a certain 
quota  of  rest  which  in  the  average  house- 
hold, because  of  the  turmoil  and  noise  going 
on  by  day,  can  be  secured  only  at  night. 

When  a child  says,  “ I don’t  want  to  go  to 
school  any  more,  I’m  going  to  work,”  par- 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  109 


ents  are  apt  to  acquiesce,  instead  of  asserting 
their  authority  and  compelling  the  child  to 
obtain  at  least  a minimum  amount  of  school- 
ing. Here,  too,  there  is  not  only  ignorance  of 
the  most  pronounced  sort,  but,  in  some  cases, 
an  indifference  as  to  what  really  becomes  of 
the  child. 

The  manager  of  a large  factory  seldom 
sees  his  “ kids.”  The  “ business  end  ” of 
the  work  occupies  his  entire  attention.  Com- 
petition is  sharp  and  he  is  constantly 
struggling  for  supremacy  in  a market  which 
is  dominated  by  men  who  are  fighting  for 
profits.  The  manager  looks  after  the  ‘ ‘ busi- 
ness end,”  and  leaves  to  his  superintendents 
the  task  of  hiring  and  discharging  the  help 
and  seeing  that  they  are  cared  for  in  accord- 
ance with  the  provisions  of  the  factory  law. 
In  a few  cases,  much  fewer  than  they  should 
really  be,  the  manufacturer  makes  provisions 
not  required  by  law.  The  great  majority, 
however,  simply  handle  their  “ business,” 
leaving  to  their  foremen  or  superintendents 
the  task  of  complying  with  the  law. 

In  many  factories,  even  the  provisions  of 


110  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

the  law  are  not  observed,  because  the  ‘ ‘ busi- 
ness end  ’ ’ of  the  work  is  ‘ ‘ running  behind,  ’ ’ 
and  “ business  comes  first  every  time.” 
‘ ‘ Good  God ! Do  these  children  work  in  my 
factory?  ” represents  the  position  not  of  one, 
but  of  many  manufacturers.  It  would  fall 
from  the  lips  of  thousands  could  they  be 
confronted  with  the  conditions  of  their  mills 
as  they  actually  exist. 

The  majority  of  manufacturers  are,  how- 
ever, neither  ignorant  nor  indifferent,  but 
alive  to  the  undesirability  of  child  employ- 
ment. Even  in  the  case  of  the  minority  who 
are  ignorant  of  conditions,  or  indifferent  to 
law,  it  cannot  be  fairly  said  that  their  at- 
titude constitutes  a cause  of  child  labor.  It 
helps  to  make  child  labor  possible,  but  it  is 
not  a moving  factor,  leading  children  to  the 
mills. 

Aside  from  the  ignorance  of  the  child,  the 
indifference  of  some  parents,  the  ignorance 
of  many  others,  and  the  devotion  of  em- 
ployees to  the  1 1 business  end  ’ ’ of  their  work 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  “ human  end,”  there 
is  a cause  of  child  labor  more  potent  and  far- 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  111 


reaching  than  all  of  these  combined,  for  it  in- 
cludes them  all, — the  ignorance  and  indiffer- 
ence of  society.  Attention  has  already  been 
called  to  the  social  greed,  the  demand  for 
things — many  and  cheap, — and  the  fact  that 
such  a demand  inevitably  leads  to  the  produc- 
tion of  cheap  goods  by  cheap  labor. 

Cheap  labor  means  the  sweat  shops  and  the 
labor  of  little  children.  Could  the  average 
member  of  the  purchasing  public  be  made  to 
see  the  revolting  conditions  out  of  which 
“ bargain  ” products  come,  and  to  demand 
goods  made  under  fair  conditions,  a long  step 
would  have  been  taken  toward  solving  the 
child  labor  problem.  Such  a result  can  be 
attained  only  by  education  extending  over  a 
long  series  of  years.  The  public  mind  is 
slow  to  move,  and  even  slower  to  change  from 
an  old,  deep  rut. 

The  social  demand  for  cheap  goods  makes 
it  possible  for  manufacturers  to  employ  chil- 
dren, but  it  does  not  send  the  children  to 
work.  The  chief  factor  in  doing  that,  also  a 
result  of  social  ignorance  and  indifference, 
is  the  school  system. 


112 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


The  fact  that  186,000  children,  between  ten 
and  thirteen,  are  employed  in  the  United 
States  in  gainful  occupations  other  than  agri- 
culture, is  a proof  conclusive  that  the  com- 
munity has  failed  to  insist  upon  school  at- 
tendance. Even  when  the  children  are  kept 
out  of  the  factories  they  are  not  in  the 
schools,  and  it  is  in  that  fact  that  the  leading 
cause  of  child  labor  may  be  read. 

“ The  most  potent  reason,  in  my  opinion, 
why  the  children  are  in  the  factory,  is  our 
school  system,”  says  Jean  M.  Gordon,  a 
Louisiana  factory  inspector.  A careful  can- 
vass of  any  group  of  child  laborers  will  re- 
veal the  fact  that  this  statement  is  absolutely 
true.  The  average  working  child  would  far 
rather  work  in  the  factory  than  return  to 
school. 

VI.  The  Why  of  Child  Labor 

The  preceding  analysis  of  industrial  evolu- 
tion, greed,  necessity,  and  ignorance  and  in- 
difference, narrows  the  field  of  causes  to  two. 
The  average  child  laborer  goes  to  work  be- 
cause his  family  needs  the  income,  or  be- 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  113 


cause  he  “ hates  school.”  Often,  both  rea- 
sons are  operating. 

Family  necessity  is  a prime  cause  of  child 
labor.  It  is  not,  as  many  writers  would  lead 
us  to  believe,  dire  poverty  which  sends  chil- 
dren to  work.  The  wolf  could  be  kept  from 
the  door  without  the  aid  of  the  children,  but 
then  there  is  a difference  between  warding 
off  starvation,  “ the  wolf,”  and  maintaining 
the  family  on  a wholesome  diet.  The  wages 
of  the  father  alone  will  buy  food  and  keep 
back  the  wolf.  An  additional  $3  a week  will 
buy  more  food  and  insure  a better  diet.  The 
parent  chooses  the  better  diet  for  the  family, 
and  the  child  goes  to  work. 

The  child  goes  to  work  because  the  father 
cannot  earn  enough  to  support  the  family; 
the  father’s  earning  power  is  low  either  be- 
cause his  training  has  been  defective,  or 
because  low-standard  people,  usually  im- 
migrants, are  bidding  against  him  for  jobs, 
and  are  willing  to  live  on  very  little;  in  the 
competitive  struggle  for  jobs,  the  lowest  bid- 
der gets  the  work,  and  sets  a standard  to 
which  the  others  must  conform;  and  this 


114  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

standard  lias  been  set  so  low  that  men 
cannot  provide  a decent  living  for  their 
families. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  just  what  propor- 
tion of  the  workers  of  the  United  States  are 
receiving  wages  which  are  so  low  that  they 
are  compelled  to  supplement  them  by  sending 
their  children  to  the  factory.  There  are, 
however,  figures  which  roughly  indicate  the 
facts. 

Dr.  Robert  C.  Chapin  analyzed  a series  of 
schedules  of  workingmen’s  family  expendi- 
tures, collected  in  Manhattan  Island,  and  con- 
cluded that: — “ An  income  of  $900  or  over 
probably  permits  the  maintenance  of  a nor- 
mal standard,  at  least  so  far  as  the  physical 
man  is  concerned.  ...” 

These  figures  were  compiled  for  the  Bor- 
ough of  Manhattan,  but,  with  the  exception  of 
rent,  none  of  the  other  items  would  be  materi- 
ally reduced  in  any  large-sized  industrial 
town  or  city.  According  to  this  analysis  $900 
is  a minimum  wage  which  will  permit  the 
maintenance  of  physical  efficiency  for  a man, 
wife,  and  three  children  under  fourteen  years 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  115 


of  age.  What  proportion  of  the  families  in 
the  United  States  receive  $900? 

An  investigation  made  in  1903  by  the 
United  States  Department  of  Labor  covered 
25,440  families,  among  which  the  average  to- 
tal income  was  $749.50.  These  families  were 
of  wage-earners,  and  were  taken  from  all  of 
the  representative  states  and  industrial 
centers.  Of  610  native  families  having  three 
children,  the  average  income  was  $666. 
Of  518  foreign  families  having  three  chil- 
dren, the  average  income  was  $654. 

The  most  recent  wage  investigation  is  that 
made  by  the  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Labor  into  wages  in  the  Bethlehem  Steel 
Works.1  In  all,  9,184  men  were  employed. 
Of  this  number 

48.5 1»  were  receiving  less  than  16  cents  per 
hour  ($550  per  year). 

74.5#  were  receiving  less  than  22  cents  per 
hour  ($675  per  year). 

91.8  # were  receiving  less  than  30  cents  per 
hour  ($950  per  year). 

1 Report  on  Strike  at  Bethlehem  Steel  Works.  By  Charles 
P.  Neill,  Washington,  1910.  P.  60. 


116 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


The  discrepancy  between  the  minimum 
physical  efficiency  standard,  $900,  and  the 
wages  actually  received,  is  startling.  To  be 
sure,  the  $900  estimate  was  made  for  New 
York  City,  while  the  wage  figures  refer  to 
the  country  at  large,  and  to  a small  city,  but 
a discrepancy  still  exists. 

Here,  then,  is  a real  cause  of  child  labor. 
It  is  clearly  a social  and  economic  one ; social 
in  so  far  as  society  is  responsible  for  main- 
taining its  children — economic  in  so  far  as 
the  smallness  of  the  income  of  a definite 
group  in  the  community  does  not  enable  the 
man  to  provide  adequately  for  the  needs  of 
his  family.  In  no  sense  is  it  an  individual 
cause. 

The  second  important  cause  of  child  labor 
to  which  allusion  has  been  made  is  the  desire 
of  the  child  to  go  to  work.  The  average  child 
has  two  alternatives — work  and  school.  Few 
children  choose  the  school.  A little  ques- 
tioning of  school  children  will  show  that  most 
of  them — particularly  the  boys, — detest 
school  and  long  for  work.  A similar  ques- 
tioning of  working  children  will  show  an  all 


THE  CAUSES  OP  CHILD  LABOR  117 

but  universal  preference  for  work.  The  rea- 
sons given  for  this  preference  are  various, 
but  the  preference  remains  the  same, — in 
favor  of  work  and  against  the  school. 

What  elements  in  the  educational  institu- 
tions of  the  country  lead  to  such  widespread 
dislike  on  the  part  of  the  children?  This 
question,  put  to  hundreds  of  children,  is  an- 
swered in  hundreds  of  different  ways.  In 
general,  however,  the  objections  have  refer- 
ence to: — (1)  the  curriculum;  (2)  the  school 
machinery;  (3)  the  teachers;  (4)  the  disci- 
pline. 

If,  as  Spencer  maintains,  the  object  of  edu- 
cation is  complete  living,  then  manifestly  the 
purpose  of  the  school  should  be  to  take  chil- 
dren from  the  home  at  the  age  of  six  or  seven 
or  eight,  and  so  train  them  that  at  the  age  of 
fifteen  or  sixteen  or  seventeen,  they  are  pre- 
pared to  take  their  places  in  the  world,  and 
do  it  efficiently.  The  education  of  the  school 
should  have  a direct  bearing  on  life  and  the 
boy  or  girl  with  the  most  complete  education 
should,  therefore,  be  best  prepared  to  live. 
Surprising  though  it  may  seem,  this  is  not 


118 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


the  case  in  the  United  States,  because  the  edu- 
cational system  is  not  so  shaped  as  to  appeal 
either  to  the  parent  or  the  child. 

The  boy  of  twelve  who  wishes  to  continue 
school  has  no  choice.  Be  his  mind  square, 
triangular,  or  hexagonal,  it  will  be  ham- 
mered, pushed,  and  pulled  through  the  same 
round  hole,  the  school  curriculum,  which  has 
been  worn  smooth  and  polished  by  the 
passage  of  other  minds,  square,  triangular, 
hexagonal,  which  were  one  and  all  hammered, 
pushed,  and  pulled  through  the  identical 
round  school  curriculum  in  the  same  manner. 
The  boy  of  twelve  who  wishes  to  go  to  work 
has  an  infinite  variety  of  choices  before  him. 
Each  business  holds  out  a different  induce- 
ment, appealing  to  a peculiar  temperament. 
There  is  no  attempt  at  uniformity.  Every 
opportunity  is  offered  for  individual  selec- 
tion. 

The  boy  faces  the  dilemma  presented  by 
the  school  on  the  one  hand  and  employment 
on  the  other.  The  school  offers  monotony, 
sameness,  discipline,  and  dependence;  while 
employment  offers  interest,  variety,  freedom, 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  119 


and  pocket  money.  In  view  of  these  facts,  it 
is  small  wonder  that  the  boy  chooses  employ- 
ment. The  choices  presented  by  employ- 
ment to  the  girl  are  not  so  overwhelmingly 
attractive,  but  they  are,  nevertheless,  suffi- 
cient, and  becoming  more  so  every  day,  to  win 
multitudes  of  girls  away  from  the  school. 

The  failure  of  the  school  to  reach  the  child 
is  clearly  indicated  by  the  astounding  degree 
of  illiteracy  in  the  United  States.  Dr.  An- 
drew S.  Draper,  New  York’s  Commissioner 
of  Education,  says : — 

“ In  Chicago  or  New  York  there  is  a much  larger  per- 
centage of  people  ten  years  old  and  more  who  can  neither 
read  nor  write  than  there  is  in  London,  or  Paris,  or  Berlin, 
or  Zurich,  or  Copenhagen,  or  even  Tokio.  . . . The  im- 
migration is  an  inadequate  explanation.  There  is  a larger 
percentage  of  illiterate  children  of  native  born  than  of 
foreign  born  parents  in  the  state  of  New  York.  This  state- 
ment is  also  true  of  Illinois.”  1 

The  presence  of  this  group  of  illiterates  in- 
dicates clearly  that  the  schools  are  failing  to 
fulfill  their  allotted  sphere  in  the  community ; 
but  why!  Dr.  Draper  indicates  clearly: — 

1 “ Conserving  Childhood.”  By  Andrew  S.  Draper,  LL.B., 
LL.D.,  Commissioner  of  Education  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  Proceedings  of  the  Fifth  Annual  Conference,  Na- 
tional Child  Labor  Committee,  1909.  Pp.  3-4. 


120 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


“ We  cannot  exculpate  tlie  schools.  They 
are  as  wasteful  of  child  life  as  are  the  homes. 
From  bottom  to  the  top  of  the  American  edu- 
cational system  we  take  little  account  of  the 
time  of  the  child.  We  are  anxious  to  do 
everything  under  the  sun,  and  to  put  into  the 
head  of  the  young  child  all  that  it  is  expected 
to  know.  ’ ’ 1 

The  opinion  of  Dr.  Draper  is  corroborated 
and  confirmed  by  Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson,  who 
says : — ‘ ‘ This  utter  lack  of  appeal  of  the  pub- 
lic school  curriculum  to  the  working  boy  of 
thirteen  or  more,  is  one  of  the  principal  causes 
of  the  rush  of  child  labor  into  the  shop  and 
the  factory.”  2 

It  is  not  only  the  school  curriculum  that  is 
distasteful. 3 The  child  is  prone  to  leave 
school  because  of  three  other  considerations 
within  the  school  itself.  They  will  be  men- 
tioned rather  than  discussed.  They  are: — 

1 Supra , p.  9. 

2 “ Overworked  Children.”  By  Woods  Hutchinson,  M.D. 
Proceedings  Fifth  Annual  Conference,  National  Child  Labor 
Committee,  1909.  P.  120. 

3 American  Education.  By  Andrew  S.  Draper.  Boston: 
Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  1909.  A justly  severe  arraignment 
of  the  present  school  system. 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  121 


1.  The  incompetent  school  teachers. 

2.  The  defective  school  equipment. 

3.  The  repressive  school  discipline. 

Instead  of  twenty,  the  ideal  number  of 

children  in  the  elementary  grades,  the  large 
cities  of  the  country  show  an  average  of 
from  thirty  to  forty  scholars  per  teacher. 
A girl  of  twenty,  graduating  from  a normal 
school  in  June,  is  not  competent  in  September 
to  take  charge  of  forty  pupils  and  make  their 
work  interesting  and  beneficial,  especially 
when  she  is  handicapped  by  the  inability  of 
the  foreign  children  to  understand  English. 
In  spite  of  the  patency  of  this  fact,  thousands 
of  girls  are  being  yearly  hurried  through  the 
normal  schools,  and  given  charge  of  large 
classes  of  children  while  they  are  but  chil- 
dren themselves.  It  does  not  follow,  how- 
ever, that  the  girl  is  at  fault.  Meager 
appropriations  for  educational  purposes 
necessitate  large  classes  and  small  salaries. 
Society  cannot  hope  to  have  the  cake  and 
eat  it.  Competent  teachers  can  be  secured 
only  by  providing  reasonable  salaries. 

With  classes  averaging  forty  small  chil- 


122 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


dren,  discipline  is  essential.  If  a group  of 
forty  children  once  break  from  the  control 
of  the  teacher,  all  is  lost, — Bedlam  is  the  re- 
sult. In  consequence  all  such  teachers,  but 
particularly  the  younger  and  less  experi- 
enced, are  laboring  under  a constant  strain. 
The  problem  with  them  is  not  “ How  shall  I 
teach?  ” but,  “ How  shall  I maintain  disci- 
pline? ” 

This  discipline  becomes  irksome.  It  is, 
for  the  average  child,  a burden  grievous  to 
bear,  and,  revolting  under  this  burden,  the 
children  leave  school,  preferring  the  com- 
parative freedom  of  the  factory  and  the  mine. 

After  a careful  study  of  666  children  who 
left  school  in  New  York  City  during  1908, 
Mary  Flexner  concludes : — ‘ ‘ The  reasons  as- 
signed [for  leaving  school]  show  that  the  chil- 
dren are  not  in  harmony  with  the  present 
school  environment.  ’ ’ 1 

Good  work  is  impossible  and  interest  must 
necessarily  flag,  in  dark,  poorly  ventilated, 
and  overcrowded  classrooms.  When  the 

1 " A Plea  for  Vocational  Training.”  By  Mary  Flexner. 
The  Survey,  vol.  xxii,  p.  651. 


THE  CAUSES  OP  CHILD  LABOE  123 


ideal  class  for  elementary  work  is  twenty, 
good  results  cannot  be  secured,  nor  even  an- 
ticipated, in  classes  containing  four  times 
that  number. 

Another  factor  which  militates  against  con- 
tinuance in  school  is  the  repressive  character 
of  the  school  discipline.  To  “ sit  in  order  ” 
and  “ study  ” are  occupations  which  grow 
dreadfully  monotonous.  Bodily  energy  ac- 
cumulates, and  must  be  worked  off,  yet  in  the 
average  school  no  provision  whatever  is  made 
for  any  kind  of  exercise  that  will  relieve  the 
feelings.  Manual  training  in  some  form 
would  answer,  but  that  requires  money,  and 
no  extra  funds  are  forthcoming. 

Thus  the  school  system  with  its  defective 
curriculum,  its  imperfect,  overworked  ma- 
chinery, its  young,  inexperienced  teachers, 
and  its  repressive  discipline,  forms  in  the  ag- 
gregate an  ogre  from  which  the  child  turns  to 
the  burden  and  the  soul-destroying  monotony 
of  factory  work. 

Here,  then,  are  two  causes,  the  needy  fam- 
ily and  the  defective  school  system,  which  are 
immediately  responsible  for  child  labor.  Per- 


124 


CHILD  LABOE  PBOBLEM 


sonal  causes — greed,  ignorance,  and  indiffer- 
ence of  manufacturer,  parent,  and  child — are 
insignificant  factors.  The  causes  of  child  la- 
bor are  primarily  economic  and  social.  If 
society  is  not  responsible  for  the  inability  of 
parents  to  provide  for  the  support  of  their 
children,  it  is  at  least  responsible  for  the  sup- 
port of  those  children  while  they  are  securing 
an  education,  and  whatever  may  be  said  re- 
garding "social  responsibility  for  good  feed- 
ing, society  is  clearly  responsible  for  not  pro- 
viding an  educational  system  that  will  hold 
the  children  out  of  the  mills. 

Briefly  the  causes  of  child  labor  may  be 
thus  stated : — The  system  of  modern  industry 
with  its  labor-saving  appliances,  its  means  of 
employing  mechanical  power,  and  its  division 
of  labor,  makes  the  manufacture  of  cheap 
goods  possible;  an  insatiable  public  demand 
for  quantity  rather  than  quality  leads  the 
manufacturer  to  turn  out  many  things  and 
cheap  ones ; in  turning  out  these  cheap  goods, 
the  manufacturer,  through  the  division  of  la- 
bor and  the  development  of  machinery,  is  en- 
abled to  employ  children;  in  a competitive 


THE  CAUSES  OF  CHILD  LABOR  125 


industry  if  one  manufacturer  adopts  a cheap 
device,  the  others  must  do  likewise  or  go 
bankrupt,  and  thus  is  created,  out  of  the  sys- 
tem of  competitive  industry,  the  condition 
which  always  permits  and  at  times  requires 
the  employment  of  children.  Two  other  fac- 
tors enter  prominently  as  causes  of  child  la- 
bor. They  are  the  moving  causes  that  are 
actively  operating  to  send  children  to  work, — 

1.  The  wages  of  the  average  workman  are 

so  low  as  to  preclude  the  possibility 
of  his  bringing  up  a family  without 
some  outside  aid.  This  is  often  se- 
cured by  sending  the  children  to  work. 

2.  The  school  system  with  its  ancient  cur- 

riculum, rigorous  discipline,  and  low- 
paid,  inexperienced  teachers,  is  heart- 
ily detested  by  the  average  boy,  and 
probably  by  the  average  girl,  who  take 
the  first  opportunity  to  escape  from 
its  monotony  and  confinement  to  the 
freedom  of  work. 


CHAPTER  YI 


A PROGRAMME  FOR  CHILD  LABOR 
REFORM 

I.  The  Campaign  for  Negative  Legislation 

A vigorous  attempt  has  been  made  to  cope 
with  the  child  labor  problem  by  organizing  a 
Child  Labor  Campaign,  the  object  of  which 
may  he  summed  up  in  one  word — Legislation. 
Philanthropists,  social  workers,  and  public- 
spirited  citizens,  roused  by  the  tales  of  child 
work  in  mine  and  factory,  have  turned 
eagerly  to  the  American  cure-all,  negative 
legislation,  and  have  secured  the  passage  of 
laws  which  forbid  children  under  a certain 
age  to  work,  and  which  penalize  the  employer 
who  violates  the  law. 

Such  laws  are  demanded  and  enacted  in 
the  name  of  the  children,  but  do  the  children 
benefit  by  their  existence?  Suppose  a law 
to  be  passed  and  enforced  which  results,  as 
126 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


127 


in  Illinois,  in  decreasing  the  number  of  chil- 
dren employed  from  19,225  in  1902,  to  9,925 
in  1908.1  Are  the  children  who  were  dis- 
missed from  work  in  a more  advantageous 
position  than  they  were  before  the  law  was 
passed?  In  the  majority  of  cases,  they  are 
not. 

Child  labor  laws  penalize  the  employer. 
The  employer  dismisses  the  child.  What  fol- 
lows? If  the  dismissed  child  dislikes  the 
school,  as  children  who  have  been  at  work 
almost  invariably  do,  he  turns  to  street  life. 
If  the  family  of  the  dismissed  child  is  in  need 
of  his  income,  he,  with  the  other  members  of 
the  family,  suffers  from  under-nutrition  after 
that  income  ceases.  In  either  case,  the  dis- 
missed child  is  the  loser.  While  the  re- 
former goes  into  ecstasies  over  the  statistics 
of  decreasing  child  labor,  the  victims  of  the 
decrease  either  run  the  streets,  go  hungry,  or 
suffer  from  both  evils. 

The  statements  in  the  last  paragraph  are 

1 “ The  Present  Situation  in  Illinois.”  By  E.  T.  Davies, 
Chief  Factory  Inspector  of  Illinois.  Conference  on  Child 
Labor,  National  Child  Labor  Committee,  1909.  P.  154. 


128  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

not  without  foundation.  School  teachers  in 
industrial  districts  say  very  frankly  that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  schools  for  the  aver- 
age boy  after  he  has  passed  the  age  of  twelve. 
The  same  teachers  will  be  just  as  frank  in 
saying  that  almost  never  do  boys  who  have 
once  known  the  freedom  of  work  return  to 
the  discipline  of  school.  The  same  thing  is 
to  a lesser  degree  true  of  girls.  Without 
question  the  school  fails  to  retain  the  interest 
of  the  child.  On  the  other  hand,  an  investiga- 
tion of  prices  will  show  that  $1.50  a day  (the 
common  labor  wage)  is  not  a munificent  in- 
come for  a city  family  of  two  adults  and  sev- 
eral children.  The  distaste  for  school  life; 
the  attractiveness  of  street  life  to  dismissed 
children;  and  the  paucity  of  common  labor 
incomes  are  real  facts  that  must  be  faced  in 
solving  the  problem  of  the  child  worker. 

The  position  of  the  dismissed  child  is  not 
improved,  and  may  readily  be  made  worse 
by  the  enforcement  of  modern  child  labor 
legislation.  The  attempt  to  penalize  the  em- 
ployer results  in  penalizing  only  the  child. 
Anyone  familiar  with  factory  reports  knows 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


129 


that,  in  the  words  of  one  inspector,  “We 
can’t  find  them.  All  we  do  is  to  jolly  them 
along.”  Penalties  are  seldom  imposed  on 
the  employer,  but  the  average  dismissed  child 
is  severely  penalized  by  the  dismissal.  Thus 
the  attempt  to  penalize  the  employer  in  favor 
of  the  child,  results  in  an  immediate  penaliz- 
ing of  the  child. 

It  is  not  for  a moment  contended  that  there 
are  no  working  children  who,  when  dismissed 
by  the  factory  inspector,  return  to  school. 
Such  instances  abound  in  any  large  industrial 
center.  But  in  the  great  majority  of  in- 
stances, the  child  who  is  dismissed  does  not 
go  back  to  school,  but  does  suffer  grievously 
from  the  effects  of  street  life,  or  malnutri- 
tion, or  else  seeks  and  finds  other  employ- 
ment. 

The  reasons  for  this  shifting  of  the  burdens 
of  the  penalty  from  the  employer  to  the  child 
may  be  discovered  by  examining  the  laws  of 
the  various  states.  The  child  labor  law  in  most 
states  is  a purely  negative,  coercive  instru- 
ment. It  says,  “ Thou  shalt  not,”  without 
following  this  destructive  command  by  a con- 


130 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


structive  “ Thou  shalt.”  In  that  lies  its 
chief  defect.  The  law  forbids  the  child  to 
work,  without  furnishing  any  adequate  sub- 
stitute for  the  work.  It  deprives  the  child  of 
one  opportunity,  but  puts  no  other  in  its 
place. 


II.  The  Problem  in  Brief 

Briefly  summarized,  the  facts  are  these: 
The  manufacturer  does  not  need  the  child. 
The  work  of  the  children  can  be  done  with 
equal  if  not  greater  cheapness  and  efficiency 
by  mechanical  devices  or  by  adults.  The 
child  does  need  a school  training  that  will  fit 
him  to  participate  efficiently  in  some  form  of 
life  activity.  A great  number  of  parents 
need  the  earnings  of  their  children.  They 
would  not  starve  to  death  without  them,  but 
they  would  be  deprived  of  a part  of  the  food 
and  shelter  necessary  to  maintain  bddily 
vigor.  Society  needs  the  child,  developed 
eventually  into  an  efficient  worker,  a good 
citizen,  and  a thinking,  social  being. 

How  can  this  desired  end  be  attained? 
What  steps  are  necessary, — 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


131 


1.  To  insure  proper  training  of  children 

for  life  and  work. 

2.  To  give  to  society  thinking,  efficient, 

social  men  and  women. 

3.  To  keep  families  above  the  line  of 

malnutrition. 

4.  To  prevent  the  premature  employ- 

ment of  children. 

Such  results  can  be  attained  only  by  paths 
radically  different  from  any  thus  far  fol- 
lowed by  child  labor  reformers.  In  the  first 
place,  the  school  must  be  made  attractive, 
and  the  school  work  must  interest  the  child. 
In  the  words  of  an  educational  leader,  “ I 
look  to  see  the  time  when  our  schools  will 
offer  as  many  and  as  different  choices  to  the 
children,  as  the  world  of  business  does  to- 
day. ’ ’ 

Incompetent  teachers,  defective  equipment, 
and  repressive  discipline  drive  the  children 
from  the  schools.  Commissioner  Andrew  S. 
Draper  of  New  York  State  says, — “ I con- 
fess that  it  startles  me  to  find  that  certainly 
not  more  than  two-fifths  and  undoubtedly  not 
more  than  a third  of  the  children  who  enter 


132 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


our  elementary  schools  ever  finish  them,  and 
that  not  more  than  one-half  of  them  go  be- 
yond the  fifth  or  sixth  grade.”  This  state- 
ment is  corroborated  by  the  following  sen- 
tence from  Professor  Edward  I.  Thorndike  of 
Teachers  College,  Columbia  University: — 
“ At  least  twenty-five  out  of  one  hundred 
children  of  the  white  population  of  our  coun- 
try who  enter  school  stay  only  long  enough 
to  learn  to  read  simple  English,  write  such 
words  as  they  commonly  use,  and  perform 
the  four  operations  for  integers  without  seri- 
ous errors.”  1 

The  children  of  America  are  not  in  the 
schools  because  the  schools  fail  to  prepare 
for  life  work.  They  do  not  assist  in  complete 
living,  hut  train  their  pupils  to  follow  one 
narrow  intellectual  path.  The  parents  feel, 
and  justly,  that  for  many  children,  the  school 
years  are  well-nigh  wasted.  The  children  re- 
sent the  discipline,  despise  the  curriculum, 
and  eagerly  avail  themselves  of  the  first  op- 
portunity to  work. 

1 Laggards  in  Our  Schools.  By  Leonard  P.  Ayers.  New 
York:  Chautris  Publishing  Committee,  1909.  P.  9. 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


133 


The  school  training  which  should  count  for 
so  much  in  the  development  of  an  efficient  citi- 
zenship fails  to  fulfill  its  function,  and  its 
failure  is  manifest  in  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  children  who  gladly  leave  school  be- 
fore reaching  the  eighth  year,  and  in  the 
millions  of  ineffective  and  ruined  lives  which 
might  have  been  strong  and  virile  had  the 
proper  training  been  provided  in  the  schools. 
This  school  problem  can  be  solved  by  in- 
creased public  interest  and  increased  appro- 
priations. Several  American  cities  have  ex- 
tensive elementary  courses  in  manual  train- 
ing designed  to  interest  and  instruct  the 
child  in  hand  work.  Germany  is  a genera- 
tion in  advance  of  the  United  States  in  the 
provision  of  applied  education.  The  way  is 
plain : the  will  alone  is  lacking. 

Is  the  problem  equally  simple  when  one 
faces  the  family  kept  above  the  line  of  mal- 
nutrition by  the  earnings  of  child  workers? 
What  steps  can  be  taken  to  maintain  the  fam- 
ily at  an  adequate  standard  of  living,  and 
yet  place  before  the  children  an  opportunity 
for  education? 


134 


CHILD  LABOE  PEOBLEM 


Should  the  family  be  assisted?  How  can 
it  be  assisted? 

The  United  States  is  facing  this  problem, 
one  of  the  most  difficult  of  modern  questions 
— the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  govern- 
ment to  the  individual;  and  the  extent  to 
which  the  individual  should  depend  on  the 
government  for  support.  Every  state  in  the 
Union  has  broken  through  the  tradition  pale 
of  non-interference  with  individual  activity, 
by  enacting  a law  forbidding  children  to  work 
before  reaching  a certain  age,  and  command- 
ing them  to  attend  school  until  that  age  is 
reached.  These  laws  virtually  deprive  the 
family  of  anticipated  income  by  forbidding 
work  for  wages,  and  by  taking  children  away 
from  the  home,  thus  depriving  the  parents  of 
their  help  in  the  home  during  school  hours. 

The  government  deliberately  deprives  the 
family  of  potential  income.  Must  it  not,  in 
justice,  make  some  restitution  in  the  numer- 
ous cases  where  family  income  is  insufficient 
to  meet  family  needs  ? If  it  is  socially  advan- 
tageous that  every  child  should  be  thoroughly 
educated,  it  would  seem  socially  just  that  the 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


135 


government  make  some  return  to  the  needy 
family  of  such  a child  while  education  is  be- 
ing supplied. 

This  problem  has  been  extensively  dealt 
with  abroad,  where  three  methods  have  been 
devised  which,  directly  or  indirectly,  assist 
in  the  maintenance  of  family  standards. 

1.  The  minimum  wage. 

2.  Compulsory  insurance. 

3.  School  feeding. 

The  efforts  to  establish  a minimum  wage 
are  best  exemplified  in  the  legislation  of  New 
South  Wales  (Australia),  and  of  New  Zea- 
land. The  laws  originated  in  the  attempts  of 
the  government  to  maintain  the  workers  and 
their  families  in  the  face  of  a sweat-shop  com- 
petition which  was  being  aggravated  by  im- 
migration. 

The  employer  or  the  employees  in  any  in- 
dustry might,  under  the  law,  call  upon  the 
authorities  for  the  appointment  of  a mini- 
mum wage  board,  whereupon  the  local  court 
appointed  such  a board,  consisting  of  em- 
ployers, employees,  and  third  parties. 

The  board  held  public  sessions,  took  testi- 


136  CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 

mony,  and  determined  a fair  minimum  wage 
for  that  particular  trade,  and  after  the  deci- 
sion of  the  board  was  made  and  published  it 
became  unlawful  to  pay  wages  below  the  rate 
fixed  by  the  board  for  the  trade  in  question. 
This  decision  of  a quasi-public  board  at  once 
had  the  force  of  law  and  was  upheld  by  the 
courts.  On  the  whole,  the  boards  have  met 
with  a very  fair  degree  of  success.  One  of 
the  most  surprising  facts  in  connection  with 
the  operation  of  the  law  is  that  in  a number 
of  cases  boards  have  been  asked  for  by  em- 
ployers as  a protection  against  sweat-shop 
competition. 

While  the  boards  are  far  from  affording  a 
complete  solution  for  all  economic  ills,  they, 
nevertheless,  have  resulted  in  raising  the 
standard  of  life  and  wages  in  many  of 
the  lowest  standard  trades,  and  in  provid- 
ing for  workmen  a minimum  standard  of 
economic  decency  in  the  form  of  a minimum 
wage.1 

1 Labor  Movement  in  Australia.  By  Victor  J.  Clark. 
New  York:  Holt  & Co.,  1906.  Chap,  vii,  Minimum  Wage 
Boards. 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


137 


The  second  form  of  protection  for  low 
standard  families,  compulsory  insurance,  has 
been  most  completely  developed  in  Germany. 
Here,  for  a generation,  all  workers  whose  in- 
come was  less  than  a specified  amount,  have 
had  to  insure  against  sickness,  accident,  and 
death.  This  compulsory  insurance  forms  a 
part  of  the  extensive  programme  of  social 
legislation  which  Germany  has  promulgated 
for  the  protection  of  her  industrial  workers. 

The  insurance  funds  are  maintained  in  part 
by  the  workers,  in  part  by  the  employers,  and 
in  part  by  the  government.  Under  the  com- 
pulsory provisions  of  the  law  no  man  can  by 
his  incapacity  or  death  plunge  his  family  into 
poverty  or  throw  them  upon  the  community 
for  support.  Insurance  is  provided  for  the 
protection  of  those  dependent  upon  him,  just 
as  fire  departments  and  public  schools  are 
provided  for  protection  and  assistance  in 
completer  living.  The  health  and  physical 
well-being  of  children  in  Germany  are  thus 
considered  in  no  way  less  important  than 
their  protection  or  education. 

The  promulgation  of  such  a system  over  so 


138 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


vast  a territory  as  the  German  Empire  natu- 
rally resulted  in  some  dissatisfaction  and 
hardship.  Although  the  compulsory  insur- 
ance was  administered  through  existing  pri- 
vate associations  under  government  super- 
vision, there  were  many  unforeseen  details 
and  unlooked-for  hindrances.  The  law  as  it 
at  present  exists  has  been  several  times 
amended,  but  its  important  provisions  remain 
intact,  and  the  compulsory  insurance  system 
of  Germany  stands  as  a monument  to  the  wis- 
dom and  far-seeing  statesmanship  of  the  Ger- 
man legislators  who,  with  Bismarck,  were  re- 
sponsible for  their  preparation.1 

School  feeding,  the  third  form  of  protec- 
tion for  needy  families,  has  passed  the  ex- 
perimental stage,  and  is  extensively  practiced 
in  all  of  the  civilized  countries  of  Europe. 
The  method  of  feeding  varies  from  city  to 
city,  but  the  principle  is  the  same  as  that  so 
widely  held  in  Paris, — “ The  children  must  be 
fed.”  This  reply,  made  to  every  argument, 
is  an  insistence  upon  the  principle  that  edu- 

1 State  Insurance . By  Frank  W.  Lewis.  Boston: 
Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  1909.  Chap.  iv. 


JU 


T, 


i? 


(k 


LA, 

■f%  c,,  - 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


139 


cation  without  bread  is  as  useless  as  educa- 
tion without  life. 

The  school-feeding  system  usually  requires 
those  who  eat  the  school  lunches  to  pay  for 
them  if  they  are  able.  If  they  are  unable  to 
pay  the  meals  are  given  free  and  an  investiga- 
tion is  made  into  the  conditions  surrounding 
the  home. 

A general  act  in  England,  “ the  Provision 
of  Meals  Act,”  empowers  local  school  author- 
ities to  establish  systems  of  school  feeding 
and  to  pay  for  the  meals  by  levying  a speci- 
fied percentage  on  the  annual  valuation  of 
local  property. 

Under  this  act,  Bradford  has  adopted  a 
system  of  feeding  its  children.  As  an  experi- 
ment forty  children  were  fed  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1907.  “ The  improvement  [in  the 
general  appearance  and  carriage  of  the  child] 
was  more  or  less  apparent  in  all,  and  very  ob- 
vious in  some  of  the  children  who  visibly 
filled  out  and  brightened  up.”  “ The  reverse 
process  was  equally  apparent  when  the  chil- 
dren were  seen  after  the  summer  holiday, 
during  which  no  special  meals  had  been  pro- 


r,  ( 


Js\e  vv s 


\ r 0 


140 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


vided.”  The  advantages  of  this  experi- 
mental feeding  were  so  manifest  that  a cen- 
tral kitchen  was  established  and  a regular 
system  of  feeding  instituted. 

The  experience  of  Bradford  has  been  dupli- 
cated in  other  towns  where  school  feeding  has 
been  attempted.  The  children  fill  out,  freshen 
up,  and  do  better  work  on  one  square  meal  a 
day. 

The  provision  of  meals  is  an  extremely  tem- 
porary remedy.  It  puts  off  from  day  to  day 
the  hardships  which  the  children  see  before 
them  during  the  summer  holidays.  It  is, 
however,  of  sufficient  weight  to  make  educa- 
tion possible  for  indigent  children. 

To  these  three  methods  for  improving  the 
conditions  of  indigent  children  may  be  added 
a fourth,  which  has  been  proposed  on  several 
occasions  by  American  thinkers.  Following 
this  method,  all  children  must  attend  school 
up  to  a certain  age, — for  example,  fourteen 
years, — but  at  the  point  where  the  child  has 
wage-earning  power,  perhaps  ten  years  on 
the  farm  and  twelve  years  in  the  city,  the  pub- 
lic authorities  shall  pay  to  the  parents  of  such 


CHILD  LABOR  REFOKM 


141 


children  who  attend  school  a weekly  wage 
equivalent  to  that  which  the  child  might  earn 
in  the  factory,  provided  that  the  parents  shall 
first  demonstrate  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
authorities  that  a minimum  standard  of  ef- 
ficient living  cannot  he  maintained  by  the 
family  without  this  support. 

The  plan  has  obvious  disadvantages.  The 
difficulties  of  accurately  determining  a mini- 
mum standard  of  efficiency  are  very  great,  as 
conditions  vary  with  the  individual  and  the 
community.  A system  might  be  started 
whereby  parents  could  live  from  the  school 
earnings  of  a numerous  family.  These  and 
other  objections  will  present  themselves  to 
those  familiar  with  poor  law  enactment  and 
enforcement. 

On  the  other  hand,  under  existing  condi- 
tions, thousands  of  families  are  deprived  of 
some  of  the  necessaries  of  life  when  they  are 
deprived  of  their  children’s  earnings.  Com- 
pulsory school  attendance,  while  of  unques- 
tionable public  benefit,  works  serious  hard- 
ship upon  many  an  individual  family. 

The  knowledge  so  far  secured  would  incline 


142 


CHILD  LABOR  PROBLEM 


the  student  to  reject  this  fourth  proposal,  and 
to  insist  that  a combination  of  the  three  for- 
eign methods  of  dealing  with  the  problem 
would  be  most  effective  in  the  United 
States. 

The  first  step  in  the  consummation  of  such  a 
programme  is  to  secure  and  maintain  a wage 
which  will  provide  a minimum  of  subsistence. 
The  enforcement  of  such  a wage  would  be  par- 
ticularly advantageous  in  sweated  industries 
which  do  not  afford  an  opportunity  for  the 
workers  to  combine  and  make  effective  their 
demands.  The  form  of  the  law  and  the 
method  of  its  enforcement  might  well  be  gov- 
erned by  Australasian  experience. 

In  the  second  place,  some  system  of  com- 
pulsory insurance  should  be  adopted  which 
would  guarantee  the  family  against  unfore- 
seen contingencies  such  as  sickness,  accident, 
and  death,  all  of  which  prove  so  disastrous  to 
necessitous  families.  In  the  enactment  and 
enforcement  of  such  a law  we  might  well  be 
governed  by  German  experience. 

In  the  third  place  a school  lunch  should  be 
provided  and  served  at  cost  to  those  who 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


143 


choose  to  pay  for  it,  while  in  cases  where  chil- 
dren are  underfed  through  parental  neglect 
or  inefficiency,  the  lunch  should  be  free  of 
charge.  The  widest  European  experience 
affords  a basis  for  the  provision  of  lunches. 

For  national  defense  two  schools  are  pro- 
vided, one  at  Annapolis  and  one  at  West 
Point.  In  these  schools,  food,  clothing,  and 
the  most  painstaking  training  are  provided 
for  the  boys  who  are  expected  to  become  the 
military  defenders  of  the  nation.  It  is  sel- 
dom that  the  nation  is  compelled  to  resort  to 
the  military  in  order  to  maintain  itself,  but 
every  moment  of  every  day  the  nation  is  ab- 
solutely dependent  upon  industry  for  that 
maintenance. 

Is  it  a necessary  thing  to  give  food,  cloth- 
ing, and  training  to  the  military  defenders  of 
the  nation  ? How  much  more  imperative  that 
the  necessaries  of  life  should  be  provided  for 
its  industrial  defenders.  The  military 
struggle  is  an  occasional  one,  but  the  in- 
dustrial struggle  is  a constant  one,  and  far 
more  depends  upon  it  than  upon  military 
events. 


144  CHILD  LABOR  PKOBLEM 

The  industrial  competition  with  foreign  na- 
tions, particularly  with  Germany,  demands 
capable  efficient  workers  in  large  numbers. 
Up  to  the  present  time  the  demand  has  far 
exceeded  the  supply. 

III.  The  Programme 

The  foregoing  discussion  makes  the  Pro- 
gramme for  Child  Labor  Reform  almost  ob- 
vious. The  programme  revolves  around  three 
steps : — 

1.  The  guarantee,  by  the  public  authorities, 

of  a minimum  standard  of  living  that 
will  provide  for  all  children  a quantity 
of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  sufficient 
to  enable  them  to  develop  into  efficient 
members  of  the  community. 

2.  A reform  in  the  school  that  will 

(a)  Make  a child  want  the  school. 

(b)  Develop  efficient  citizens. 

3.  The  passage  of  legislation  requiring 

school  attendance  and  prohibiting  fac- 
tory work. 

It  is  only  when  the  child  has  been  phys- 
ically and  intellectually  provided  for,  in  the 


CHILD  LABOR  REFORM 


145 


manner  indicated,  that  any  permanent  good 
can  be  done  by  the  modern  child  labor  legis- 
lation which  merely  forces  children  out  of  the 
factories. 


THE  END 


